Delete Paragraphs in Word Documents using C#

In .NET development, automated processing of Word documents is a common requirement. Deleting paragraphs (such as cleaning up blank paragraphs or removing specific paragraphs) is one of the most frequently used operations. Free Spire.Doc for .NET is a free Word document manipulation component. It enables the creation, editing, and modification of Word documents without relying on Microsoft Word. This article will detail how to use this component to delete Word paragraphs in various scenarios.

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I. Environment Preparation

It is recommended to quickly install Free Spire.Doc for .NET via the NuGet Package Manager:

• Open your Visual Studio project, right-click the project → select "Manage NuGet Packages";
• Enter "Free Spire.Doc" in the search box, find the corresponding package, and click "Install";
• After installation, reference the namespaces in your code to use the component:

  using Spire.Doc;
  using Spire.Doc.Documents;

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II. Core Scenarios: Delete Word Paragraphs

In Free Spire.Doc, the structure of a Word document follows the hierarchy: "Document → Section → Paragraph":

• A Document can contain multiple Sections (chapters);
• A Section can contain multiple Paragraphs;
• Paragraph indexes start from 0.

Below are 3 common paragraph deletion scenarios, each with complete and runnable code.

Scenario 1: Delete a Paragraph by Specified Index

Suitable for cases where the position of the paragraph to be deleted is known (e.g., deleting the 2nd paragraph or the last paragraph).

Implementation Steps:

1. Create a Document instance and load the Word document;
2. Get the target section (usually the first section Sections[0]);
3. Call the Paragraphs.RemoveAt(index) method to delete the paragraph by its index;
4. Save the modified document.

Complete Code:

using System;
using Spire.Doc;

namespace WordParagraphDeletion
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             // 1. Load the Word document (supports .doc and .docx formats)
             string inputPath = @"C:\Test\Source.docx"; // Path of the source document
             Document doc = new Document();
             doc.LoadFromFile(inputPath);

             // 2. Get the first section (specify the corresponding index if the document has multiple sections)
             Section section = doc.Sections[0];

             // 3. Delete the paragraph at the specified index (Example: Delete the 2nd paragraph with index 1)
             int targetIndex = 1; // Paragraph index starts from 0
             section.Paragraphs.RemoveAt(targetIndex);

             // 4. Save the modified document
             string outputPath = @"C:\Test\Result_DeleteByIndex.docx";
             doc.SaveToFile(outputPath, FileFormat.Docx2016);
             doc.Close(); // Release resources           
        }
    }
}

Scenario 2: Delete All Blank Paragraphs

Suitable for cleaning up empty lines in documents (including paragraphs composed of pure whitespace characters, tabs, or line breaks).

Key Notes:

• Find blank paragraphs: paragraph.Text.Trim() == string.Empty (empty after removing leading and trailing whitespace characters);
• Reverse traversal is required when deleting paragraphs. Traverse from the last paragraph to the first to avoid index misalignment caused by element deletion.

Complete Code:

using System;
using Spire.Doc;

namespace WordParagraphDeletion
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // 1. Load the document
            string inputPath = @"C:\Test\Source.docx";
            Document doc = new Document();
            doc.LoadFromFile(inputPath);

            // 2. Traverse sections and paragraphs
            foreach (Section section in doc.Sections)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < section.Body.ChildObjects.Count; i++)
                {
                    if (section.Body.ChildObjects[i].DocumentObjectType == DocumentObjectType.Paragraph)
                    {
                        // 3. Check if the paragraph is blank (remove leading and trailing whitespace characters)
                        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty((section.Body.ChildObjects[i] as Paragraph).Text.Trim()))
                        {
                            // 4. Delete the blank paragraph
                            section.Body.ChildObjects.Remove(section.Body.ChildObjects[i]);
                            i--;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            // 5. Save the document
            string outputPath = @"C:\Test\Result_DeleteBlankParagraphs.docx";
            doc.SaveToFile(outputPath, FileFormat.Docx2016);
            doc.Close();            
        }
    }
}

Scenario 3: Delete All Paragraphs in the Document

Suitable for clearing document content (retaining only the empty document structure).

Implementation Steps:

• Directly call the Paragraphs.Clear() method to delete all paragraphs under a section;
• If the document has multiple sections, traverse all sections and execute the clear operation.

Complete Code:

using System;
using Spire.Doc;

namespace WordParagraphDeletion
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // 1. Load the document
            string inputPath = @"C:\Test\Source.docx";
            Document doc = new Document();
            doc.LoadFromFile(inputPath);

            // 2. Traverse all sections and delete all paragraphs in each section
            foreach (Section section in doc.Sections)
            {
                section.Paragraphs.Clear();
             }

            // 3. Save the document
            string outputPath = @"C:\Test\Result_DeleteAllParagraphs.docx";
            doc.SaveToFile(outputPath, FileFormat.Docx2016);
            doc.Close();
        }
    }
}

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III. Notes

1. Free Version Limitations: The free version of Free Spire.Doc supports processing documents with up to 500 paragraphs, which is suitable for personal or small-scale projects.
2. Resource Release: After completing the operation, call doc.Close() to release document resources, or use the using statement for automatic release:

   using (Document doc = new Document())
   {
       doc.LoadFromFile(inputPath);
       // Paragraph operations...
       doc.SaveToFile(outputPath);
   } // Resources are released automatically

1. Index Issues: Paragraph indexes start from 0. Avoid index out-of-bounds when deleting paragraphs.

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IV. Summary

This article implements 3 common Word paragraph deletion scenarios using Free Spire.Doc for .NET, including deletion by specified index, deletion of blank paragraphs, and full deletion. The component features a concise and easy-to-use API and does not require dependency on Word. It is suitable for .NET developers to quickly implement automated Word document processing. Choose the appropriate deletion method based on actual needs to efficiently complete paragraph cleaning tasks.