Programmatically searching for a text phrase in a Word document using C# but without Word Interop

Question

I am looking for a method via C# to programmatically search for Word documents in a given folder that contain a specific text phrase. The program needs to be able to work without using Word Interop as it may be running on a server.

I have tried to search for solutions, but anything I find is very old and based on outdated versions of libraries and applications.

Answer 1

DocumentFormat.OpenXml is probably your best bet.

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;

var doc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(filePath, false);
string content = doc.MainDocumentPart.Document.Body.InnerText;

if (content.Contains("phraseToSearch"))
{
    //do your thing
}   

doc.Close();