Quick Start Guide Leave feedback

This guide provides a quick overview of how to set up and start using GroupDocs.Total for Python via .NET.
It shows three code examples that demonstrate how to use packages included in the suite.

To proceed, make sure you have:

1. Configured environment as described in the System Requirements topic.
2. Optionally you may Get a Temporary License to test all the product features.

For best practices, use a virtual environment to manage dependencies in Python applications. Learn more about virtual environment at Create and Use Virtual Environments documentation topic.

Create a virtual environment:

py -3.11 -m venv .venv

python3 -m venv .venv

Activate a virtual environment:

.venv\Scripts\activate

source .venv/bin/activate

After activating the virtual environment, run the following command in your terminal to install the latest version of the package. It installs all 14 products: about 2.2 GB to download and 3.2 GB on disk.

py -m pip install groupdocs-total-net

python3 -m pip install groupdocs-total-net

Ensure the package is installed successfully. You should see the message

Successfully installed groupdocs-total-net-*

This example shows how to convert a DOCX document to PDF using GroupDocs.Conversion. You can download the demo app here.

import os
from groupdocs.conversion import License, Converter
from groupdocs.conversion.options.convert import PdfConvertOptions

def convert_docx_to_pdf():
    # Get license file absolute path
    license_path = os.path.abspath("./GroupDocs.Total.lic")

    if os.path.exists(license_path):
        # Create License and set the path
        license = License()
        license.set_license(license_path)

    # Load DOCX file
    with Converter("./business-plan.docx") as converter:
        # Create convert options
        pdf_convert_options = PdfConvertOptions()

        # Convert DOCX to PDF
        converter.convert("./business-plan.pdf", pdf_convert_options)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    convert_docx_to_pdf()

Your folder tree should look similar to the following directory structure:

📂 demo-app
 ├──convert_docx_to_pdf.py
 ├──business-plan.docx
 └──GroupDocs.Total.lic (Optionally)

py convert_docx_to_pdf.py

After running the app you can deactivate virtual environment by executing deactivate or closing your shell.

• Converter("./business-plan.docx"): Initializes the converter with the DOCX file.
• PdfConvertOptions(): Specifies the output format as PDF.
• converter.convert("./business-plan.pdf", pdf_convert_options): Converts the DOCX file to PDF and saves it as business-plan.pdf.

This code example shows how to remove PDF document metadata and save the output to a file with GroupDocs.Metadata. You can download the app that we’re going to build here.

import os
from groupdocs.metadata import License, Metadata

def remove_pdf_metadata():
    # Get license file absolute path
    license_path = os.path.abspath("./GroupDocs.Total.lic")

    if os.path.exists(license_path):
        # Create License and set the path
        license = License()
        license.set_license(license_path)

    # Load the PDF file
    with Metadata("./business-plan.pdf") as metadata:
      # Remove metadata
      metadata.sanitize()
     
      # Save the file with no metadata
      metadata.save("./no-metadata.pdf")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    remove_pdf_metadata()

Your folder tree should look similar to the following directory structure:

📂 demo-app
 ├──business-plan.pdf
 ├──remove_pdf_metadata.py
 └──GroupDocs.Total.lic (Optionally)

py remove_pdf_metadata.py

After running the app you can deactivate virtual environment by executing deactivate or closing your shell.

• Metadata("./business-plan.pdf"): Initializes metadata object with the source PDF file.
• metadata.sanitize(): Removes the metadata.
• metadata.save("./no-metadata.pdf"): Saves the output document without metadata.

This example converts a DOCX file to PDF and removes metadata in a single workflow, using two products in one script. You can download the demo app here.

import os

# Windows: keep each product on its own .NET runtime (set before the first call)
os.environ["DOTNET_MULTILEVEL_LOOKUP"] = "0"

from groupdocs.conversion import License as ConversionLicense, Converter
from groupdocs.conversion.options.convert import PdfConvertOptions
from groupdocs.metadata import License as MetadataLicense, Metadata

def convert_and_remove_metadata():
    # Get license file absolute path
    license_path = os.path.abspath("./GroupDocs.Total.lic")

    if os.path.exists(license_path):
        # License GroupDocs.Conversion
        conversion_license = ConversionLicense()
        conversion_license.set_license(license_path)

        # License GroupDocs.Metadata
        metadata_license = MetadataLicense()
        metadata_license.set_license(license_path)

    # Load DOCX file
    with Converter("./business-plan.docx") as converter:
        # Create convert options
        pdf_convert_options = PdfConvertOptions()

        # Convert DOCX to PDF
        converter.convert("./business-plan.pdf", pdf_convert_options)

    # Load created PDF file
    with Metadata("./business-plan.pdf") as metadata:
      # Remove the metadata
      metadata.sanitize()
     
      # Save the file with no metadata
      metadata.save("./converted-no-metadata.pdf")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    convert_and_remove_metadata()

Your folder tree should look similar to the following directory structure:

📂 demo-app
 ├──business-plan.docx
 ├──convert_and_remove_metadata.py
 └──GroupDocs.Total.lic (Optionally)

py convert_and_remove_metadata.py

After running the app you can deactivate virtual environment by executing deactivate or closing your shell.

• os.environ["DOTNET_MULTILEVEL_LOOKUP"] = "0": On Windows, keeps each product on the .NET runtime it ships with. Without it, on a machine with a newer .NET installed system-wide, Viewer, Metadata, Annotation, Comparison, Editor, Merger and Redaction load that runtime instead, and the second of them in one script fails with RuntimeError: hostfxr_get_runtime_delegate failed with 0x800080a3. It has no effect on Linux and macOS.
• Converter("./business-plan.docx"): Initializes the converter with the DOCX file.
• converter.convert("./business-plan.pdf", pdf_convert_options): Converts the DOCX file to PDF and saves it as business-plan.pdf.
• Metadata("./business-plan.pdf"): Reads converted PDF file.
• metadata.sanitize(): Removes the metadata.
• metadata.save("./converted-no-metadata.pdf"): Saves the output document without metadata.

• Supported File Formats: Review the full list of supported file types.
• Licensing and Evaluation: Check details on licensing and evaluation.
• Technical Support: Contact support for assistance if you encounter issues.