parsing.py

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import codecs
import re
import io
import os,glob



path = '*'   # change this according to where the script is and where the alto files are
files=glob.glob(path)
for chemin in files :
	if os.path.isfile(chemin) == True : 				# we only want the files, not the directories
		f = io.open(chemin,'r',encoding="utf-8")  		# opens every file 
		lines = f.readlines()  					# reads the file line by line
		x = io.open(chemin[:-4]+".txt","w",encoding='utf-8')	# removes the .xml from the filename of the file we're reading, creates a .txt file with the same name
		for line in lines:					# for each line,
			y = re.search('CONTENT=\"(.*?)\"',line)  	# we search for the matching " "CONTENT="xyz" " regex
			if y:						# if we find it, 
				y = y.group(0)				# we write every match of it inside the file, while removing " "CONTENT=" and the trailing " " " and adding a space between each word
				z = y[9:]
				zz = z[:-1]
				zz = zz+" "
				x.write(zz)