Copy a paragraph into the same document(python 3.x, docx)

Question

Let's say I have a certain paragraph in my docx document with certain text formatting, for example:
"Foo bar"
I want to make something like a template of this paragraph to copy it into the same document multiple times.
Copying text like in the example means loosing text formatting.

from docx import Document

document = Document('input.docx')
template = document.paragraphs[0]
for x in range(100):
    document.add_paragraph(template.text)
document.save('output.docx')

Is there any generic way to do it with python-docx library?
Other solutions for python and django in particulary are appreciated as well!
Thanks in advance.

Your question is a bit too abstract to allow a useful answer. In general you would need to go down to the next level (runs inside paragraphs) because that's where the character formatting is. If you can make your particular objective a bit more concrete, a better answer might be possible. I'll take a crack below with these provisos. — scanny

scanny scanny · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-28T18:07:52

In your simple example, you could do something like this:

def clone_run_props(tmpl_run, this_run):
    this_run.bold = tmpl_run.bold
    ... maybe other possible run properties ...

template_paragraph = ... however you get this ...
new_paragraph = document.add_paragraph()
for run in template_paragraph:
    cloned_run = new_paragraph.add_run()
    clone_run_props(run, cloned_run)
    cloned_run.text = ... however you get this ...

This approach will work when the character formatting is directly applied, but not when it's indirectly applied, such as via a character style.

Copy a paragraph into the same document(python 3.x, docx)

1 Answers