python-docx: Remove bibliography (w:sdt) section

Question

My end goal here is to find and remove any bibliography section from a Microsoft Word document.

As mentioned in this issue. There currently isn't any API support for w:sdt tags (which I think is only for bibliographies). However, in response to this issue, a work-around was given of:

paragraph = ... # however you get the paragraph, maybe with `for paragraph in document.paragraphs`
p = paragraph._element
sdts = p.xpath('w:sdt')
for sdt in sdts:
    parent = sdt.getparent()
    parent.remove(sdt)

When using the above, the document's xml updates and deletes the w:sdt tags as I want it to. However, when I save the new document the output .docx file still includes the bibliography section.

Why is it that despite the python-docx document's xml not including the w:sdt elements does this not reflect once the document is saved and opened in Microsoft Word. I have read here that document relationships could have something to do this with but given that I get no error when opening the new word document, I don't think this is the problem. Any ideas?

Here is the xml snippet pre-processing:

<w:p xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main" xmlns:w14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordml" xmlns:wpc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingCanvas" xmlns:cx="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2014/chartex" xmlns:cx1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2015/9/8/chartex" xmlns:cx2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2015/10/21/chartex" xmlns:cx3="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/9/chartex" xmlns:cx4="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/10/chartex" xmlns:cx5="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/11/chartex" xmlns:cx6="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/12/chartex" xmlns:cx7="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/13/chartex" xmlns:cx8="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/14/chartex" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:aink="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/ink" xmlns:am3d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2017/model3d" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:oel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2019/extlst" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:m="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/math" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:wp14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:wp="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:w10="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:w15="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2012/wordml" xmlns:w16cex="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordml/cex" xmlns:w16cid="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2016/wordml/cid" xmlns:w16="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordml" xmlns:w16sdtdh="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2020/wordml/sdtdatahash" xmlns:w16se="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2015/wordml/symex" xmlns:wpg="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingGroup" xmlns:wpi="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingInk" xmlns:wne="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2006/wordml" xmlns:wps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingShape" w14:paraId="2BE25C04" w14:textId="0C685DB1" w:rsidR="00572630" w:rsidRDefault="006A14EA">
  <w:r>
    <w:t xml:space="preserve">Hey there </w:t>
  </w:r>
  <w:sdt>
    <w:sdtPr>
      <w:id w:val="-39898552"/>
      <w:citation/>
    </w:sdtPr>
    <w:sdtContent>
      <w:r>
        <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="begin"/>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:instrText xml:space="preserve"> CITATION Fra69 \l 2057 </w:instrText>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="separate"/>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:rPr>
          <w:noProof/>
        </w:rPr>
        <w:t>(Herbert, 1969)</w:t>
      </w:r>
      <w:r>
        <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="end"/>
      </w:r>
    </w:sdtContent>
  </w:sdt>
</w:p>

Here is the xml snippet post-processing where you can see the bibliography has been removed, but these changes aren't seen once I save and open the doc:

<w:p xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main" xmlns:w14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordml" xmlns:wpc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingCanvas" xmlns:cx="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2014/chartex" xmlns:cx1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2015/9/8/chartex" xmlns:cx2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2015/10/21/chartex" xmlns:cx3="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/9/chartex" xmlns:cx4="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/10/chartex" xmlns:cx5="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/11/chartex" xmlns:cx6="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/12/chartex" xmlns:cx7="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/13/chartex" xmlns:cx8="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/14/chartex" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:aink="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/ink" xmlns:am3d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2017/model3d" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:oel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2019/extlst" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:m="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/math" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:wp14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:wp="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:w10="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:w15="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2012/wordml" xmlns:w16cex="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordml/cex" xmlns:w16cid="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2016/wordml/cid" xmlns:w16="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordml" xmlns:w16sdtdh="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2020/wordml/sdtdatahash" xmlns:w16se="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2015/wordml/symex" xmlns:wpg="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingGroup" xmlns:wpi="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingInk" xmlns:wne="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2006/wordml" xmlns:wps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingShape" w14:paraId="2BE25C04" w14:textId="0C685DB1" w:rsidR="00572630" w:rsidRDefault="006A14EA">
  <w:r>
    <w:t xml:space="preserve">Hey there </w:t>
  </w:r>
</w:p>

Note: I am asking this question here as the python-docx GitHub hasn't had much activity recently.

Answer 1

I realised my problem was I was only deleting the w:sdt elements that were children of paragraph elements and not the main bibliography w:sdt element. Deleting both are required to be fully rid of all the bibliography and its references.

For reference - below is for deleting bibliography refs:

paragraph = ... # however you get the paragraph, maybe with `for paragraph in document.paragraphs`
p = paragraph._element
sdts = p.xpath('w:sdt')
for sdt in sdts:
    parent = sdt.getparent()
    parent.remove(sdt)

And below will delete the main bibliography element:

body = doc._body._element
sdts = body.xpath("w:sdt")
if sdts:
    for sdt in sdts:
        parent = sdt.getparent()
        parent.remove(sdt)