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Creating Word documents and Changing contents of word document using PAD

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Posted on by TarunKittu

I need to create new files when a case is registered. I need to create 3 documents in which the contents need to be replaced with new values. I have successfully created new folder, rename the folder, and rename the created files. Now I need to replace the contents of the newly created and renamed files with new prescribed values. I tried doing this by individually opening each word document and UI elements to open Find and Replace enter old values and new values and click on replace. This process works sometimes but goes error most of the times. Can this community help me in getting best approach.

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Power Automate Desktop

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Nived_Nambiar 18,138 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @TarunKittu

For word document, you can give a try with powershell script which does the replace operation in word

powershell script used

# Open Word and create a new document object $word = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application $doc = $word.Documents.Open("%word_doc%") # Find and replace text in the document $find = "%find_text%" $replace = "%replace_text%" $matchCase = $false $matchWholeWord = $false $matchWildcards = $false $matchSoundsLike = $false $matchAllWordForms = $false $doc.Content.Find.Execute($find, $matchCase, $matchWholeWord, $matchWildcards, $matchSoundsLike, $matchAllWordForms, $true, 1, $false, $replace, 2) # Save and close the document $doc.Save() $doc.Close() # Quit Word $word.Quit()
Here %word_doc% , %replace_text%, %find_text% are variables from PAD for filepath, text to replace, text to find respectively in powershell script
Hope this helps 🙂
Mark it as solution if it resolves your query 🙂

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TarunKittu 8 on at

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@Nived_Nambiar Thanks for your reply. No, this didn't resolve my query. I'm getting the attached screenshot as error.
Regards

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Nived_Nambiar 18,138 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @TarunKittu

to make the script work, you need to enable macros in word

refer this link
https://www.wikihow.com/Enable-Macros-in-Microsoft-Word

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TarunKittu 8 on at

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@Nived_Nambiar Thanks for the reply, but that doesn't help. I have enabled running macros on word now it is not showing error but the text is not getting replaced in the word document.
I'm getting the following error in the variable script error
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At C:\Users\tarun\AppData\Local\Temp\Robin\4orfl4nzys1.tmp.ps1:14 char:1 + $doc.Content.Find.Execute($find, $matchCase, $matchWholeWord, $matchW ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At C:\Users\tarun\AppData\Local\Temp\Robin\4orfl4nzys1.tmp.ps1:17 char:1 + $doc.Save() + ~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At C:\Users\tarun\AppData\Local\Temp\Robin\4orfl4nzys1.tmp.ps1:18 char:1 + $doc.Close() + ~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

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Nived_Nambiar 18,138 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @TarunKittu

I think $doc variable is null. Just check two things here

1. whether the filepath (ie %word_doc% variable from PAD) is the correct path

2. Also check whether that file is not opened already, while running the PAD script

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TarunKittu 8 on at

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@Nived_Nambiar Thanks for the reply, I understood that actually before coming here for solution because I entered the path of file directly in the script and it worked. But if I give it through variable it is not able to assign to $doc variable. I have checked file path in PAD is correct and file is also not opened

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Nived_Nambiar 18,138 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @TarunKittu

Then it would be the problem with variable assignment

Could you show how the variable for filepath is assigned and how you specify the variable in the powershell script which i have shared ?

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Riyaz_riz11 4,214 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @TarunKittu ,
Can you follow this steps.
First step {{UpcomingCashChart}} create like this in your word file and pass that in the run vb script action.

Dim in_WordDocPath 'Path of the Word document Dim in_AnchorText 'Text to identify the placeholder for the content dim filesys Set filesys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") in_WordDocPath = "%strOutput_file%" Dim objWord, objDoc Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application") objWord.DisplayAlerts = False Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open(in_WordDocPath) objWord.Visible = False With objWord.Selection.Find .Text = "{{UpcomingCashChart}}" .Forward = True .Execute End With objWord.Selection.TypeText ("%strPName%") objWord.Selection.Style = "Normal" objDoc.Save objDoc.Close
%strOutput_file% define Output path
strPName% define the value what need to be pass.

Regards
Ahammad Riyaz
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