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Installing

pip install python-docx-ng

The import name is docx

The distribution is python-docx-ng, the importable package is docx:

import docx
from docx import Document

That is deliberate — it makes this a drop-in replacement for python-docx, so existing code and every upstream example keep working. It also means python-docx-ng and python-docx cannot be installed side by side: they claim the same import name, and whichever was installed last wins. Uninstall one before installing the other.

pip uninstall python-docx
pip install python-docx-ng

Requirements
Python 3.9 – 3.14
lxml >= 6.1.0
typing_extensions >= 4.9.0

Both dependencies are installed for you. There are no others — no test framework, no documentation tooling.

lxml is floored at 6.1.0 because that is the first release fixing CVE-2026-41066, an XXE-to-local-files hole in the default configuration of iterparse() and ETCompatXMLParser(); every 4.x and 5.x release is affected. This library uses neither API and sets resolve_entities=False on its own parser, so it was never exposed itself, but it will not pull a known-vulnerable XML parser into your dependency tree.

If you are pinned below lxml 6

Another package in your environment may cap lxml below 6. In that case this release will not resolve, and there is no supported workaround — the floor is a security boundary rather than a compatibility one.

Other installers

uv add python-docx-ng
poetry add python-docx-ng
pipenv install python-docx-ng

Upgrading from 0.9.x

2.0.0 rebases onto upstream python-docx v1.2.0 and contains breaking changes. Read the migration guide before upgrading.

The 0.9.x releases are yanked on PyPI. They require lxml<5, which has no wheels for Python 3.13 or later, and they declare a test framework as a runtime dependency. An exact pin such as python-docx-ng==0.9.7 still resolves, so existing locked builds are unaffected, but nothing new will select one.

Installing from source

git clone https://github.com/toxicphreAK/python-docx-ng.git
cd python-docx-ng
uv sync

uv is what this project uses; uv sync creates the environment and installs the development dependencies. See CONTRIBUTING.md for running the tests.