Script for batch extraction of data from Microsoft Word forms, using function from deef Shiny app. Uses function from https://github.com/prcleary/deef so do check your forms are suitable for that.

example.R

# Save this script in a directory containing "input" and "output" directories. 
# Open script in RStudio and make sure working directory is where script is.
 
# Packages required - install if needed
library(data.table)
library(stringr)
library(XML)
library(xml2)

# Directory containing forms
inputdir <- 'input'

# Directory for data extracted
outputdir <- 'output'

# Obtain key function from deef tool
source('https://github.com/prcleary/deef/raw/master/get_ffData.r')

# Get list of file paths
filepaths <- list.files(inputdir, full.names=TRUE, pattern='\\.docx$')
if (length(filepaths)==0) stop('No docx files found')

# Iterate through files
datalist <- lapply(filepaths, function(x) get_ffData(x))  
output <- rbindlist(datalist, use.names=TRUE, fill=TRUE) 
row.names(output) <- NULL

# Save output 
write.csv(output, 
  file=file.path(outputdir, paste(Sys.Date(), 'output.csv', sep='')),
  row.names=FALSE)