Make last paragraph – active pointer

I am trying to write my research work in markdown, and it’s required by my institution to submit it in Word doc format. I decided to use python-docx package to automate this task.

However, I am struggling with some specific task, like adding data to end of the file?

So here I am now.

def merge(docx, files):
    """ merges other docx files into parent docx document """
    docx._body.clear_content() 

    elements = []
    for idx, file in enumerate(files):
        donor = Document(file)
        donor.add_page_break()

        for element in donor.element.body:
            elements.append(element)

    for element in elements: 
        docx.element.body.append(element)

# base styles 
document = Document("docx/base.docx")

# adding two preformatted files with really fragile formatting.
merge(document, ["docx/Tytulka.docx", "docx/Zavdania.docx"])

document.add_paragraph("hey")
document.save("tmp_result.docx")

So what I have in tmp_result.docx, is hey -> content from 1st file, content from 2nd File.

I checked code and was successfully able to use insert_paragraf_after*, which added a paragraph at the end of the file.

So here is a question – how can I ask/trick document object to use the last paragraph as current element pointer? Its default behavior supposes to work, but I have change structure with my merged documents, and new content added to the first paragraph of the file.

I tried the next trick, but the result was unexpectedly unsatisfying**, after which, I decided to stop playing with the API (both word and python-docx) I don’t understand.

# trick I use to move active paragraph to the end.

def merge(docx, files):
    docx._body.clear_content()

    elements = []
    for idx, file in enumerate(files):
        donor = Document(file)
        donor.add_page_break()

        for element in donor.element.body:
            elements.append(element)

    for element in elements:
        # moving last paragraph to the end of file.
        tmp = docx.element.body[-1]
        docx.element.body[-1] = element
        docx.element.body.append(tmp)

# base styles 
document = Document("docx/base.docx")

# adding two preformatted files with really fragile formatting.
merge(document, ["docx/Tytulka.docx", "docx/Zavdania.docx"])

document.add_paragraph("hey")
document.save("tmp_result.docx")

I wish I can spend more time digging Word specifications, and python-docx code, but I don’t really have it. So here is a question:

How to point python-docx to write after particular (last) paragraph?

ANSWER/SOLUTION credited to scanny

The problem with just appending to the body element is there is a "sentinel" sectPr element at the end of the body and it needs to stay there (like not have paragraphs after it). by @scanny

Having this valuable info, I did next thing.

def merge(docx, files):
    """
    Merge existing docx files into docx.
    """
    docx._body.clear_content()

    elements = []
    for idx, file in enumerate(files):
        donor = Document(file)
        donor.add_page_break()

        # all except donor sentinel sectPr
        for element in donor.element.body[:-1]:
            elements.append(element)

    # moving docx centinel to the end and adding elements from
    # donors
    for element in elements:
        tmp = docx.element.body[-1]
        docx.element.body[-1] = element
        docx.element.body.append(tmp)


if __name__ == "__main__":

    # addyng title page and preformatted docs files.
    document = Document("docx/base.docx")
    merge(document, ["docx/Tytulka.docx", "docx/Zavdania.docx"])

    # document.add_paragraph("hey")

    # open for tests
    # os.system("kill -9 $(ps -e -o pid,args | grep Word.app | awk '{print $1}' | head -1)")
    # this part accepts curent document
    # transform markdown files that fits to pattern by adding them
    # to the docx
    # save and open document.
    Builder(document).build("texts/13*.md").save("tmp_result.docx").open()

As results Content of the 1st file -> Content of the 2nd File -> Markdown generated content

Win!Win!Win!

---

• * You wouldn’t find method insert_paragraf_after in the package, but it’s exactly same as insert_paragraf_before with the only difference that paragraph created and inserted to the next ones (see method add_p_before of CT_P class, you can use addnext of BaseOxmlElement)).
• ** result of moving current pointer p was next: content from 1st file -> hey -> content from 2nd File, which doesn’t make sense (since I don’t really know API’s of Word and python-docx).