Can you convert .docm files to .docx using R?

Question

I have about 100 .docm files that I need to convert to .docx. I am doing this because I am importing tables from the .docx files using the officer library (this does not work with .docm).

Answer 1

Basically what you're looking for seems to be "how can I convert a bunch word of documents from having macro enabled to not having macro enabled using R".

I'll say it as is: Probably cant without venturing into the RDComClient package. I'd say it's easier to create a seperate word file, and use a quick VBA script to do the job (such as the convert_files function below).

Function GetFolderFiles(folder As String) As Variant
    ' Extract files from folder
    Dim oFSO As Object
    Dim oFolder As Object
    Dim oFile As Object
    Dim i As Long
    Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set oFolder = oFSO.GetFolder(folder)
    Dim result() As Variant
    ReDim result(0 To oFolder.files.Count - 1)
    i = 0
    For Each oFile In oFolder.files
        If InStr(1, oFile.Name, "docm") Then
            result(i) = oFile.Path
            i = i + 1
        End If
    Next oFile
    ReDim Preserve result(0 To i - 1)
    GetFolderFiles = result
End Function
Sub convert_files(Optional ByVal folder As String = "path-to-folder")
    ' Iterate through docm files in a folder and save them as docx
    Dim files As Variant
    files = GetFolderFiles(folder)
    Dim i As Variant
    Dim wordDoc As Word.Document
    On Error GoTo safeExit
    For Each i In files
        ' Open Document (invisibly for speed)
        Set wordDoc = Word.Documents.Open(i, Visible:=False, ReadOnly:=True)
        ' Save document replacing docm with docx
        wordDoc.SaveAs2 Replace(i, "docm", "docx"), FileFormat:=wdFormatDocumentDefault   ' replace docm with docx
        ' Close the document
        wordDoc.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges
    Next i
    Exit Sub
safeExit:
    ' In case we stop early due to an error or esc press we want to ensure no invisible documents hang around.
    On Error Resume Next
    wordDoc.Close
    On Error GoTo 0
    MsgBox "Error happened did not finish after file '" & i & "'.", vbExclamation
End Sub

Once you have this defined in a saved document you can then follow up by running it from R either through cmd or using RDComclient using this example.