Paragraph.InsertAfter Invalid Operation Error in Textbox

Receiving an invalid operation error when calling Paragraph.InsertAfter when the paragraph is in a floating object/textbox. Please note the function below that I found on stack overflow. To reproduce this issue use a document that has a picturebox/textbox with word or phrase you are wanting to highlight. It blows up on the line paragraph.InsertAfter(highlightRun, found.Run);

• .NET Target: 4.6.1
• DocumentFormat.OpenXml Version: 2.9.1

        static void HighLightText(Paragraph paragraph, string text)
        {
            // Search for a first occurrence of the text in the text runs
            var found = paragraph
                .Descendants<Run>()
                .Where(r => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(r.InnerText) && r.InnerText != "\\s" && r.GetFirstChild<Text>() != null)
                .Select(r =>
                {
                    var runText = r.GetFirstChild<Text>();
                    int index = runText.Text.IndexOf(text, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

            // 'Run' is a reference to the text run we found,
            // TextNode is a reference to the run's Text object,
            // 'TokenIndex` is the index of the search string in run's text
            return new { Run = r, TextNode = runText, TokenIndex = index };
                })
                .FirstOrDefault(o => o.TokenIndex >= 0);

            // Nothing found -- escape
            if (found == null || found.Run == null)
            {
                return;
            }

            // Create a node for highlighted text as a clone (to preserve formatting etc)
            var highlightRun = found.Run.CloneNode(true);

            // Add the highlight node after the found text run and set up the highlighting
            paragraph.InsertAfter(highlightRun, found.Run);
            highlightRun.GetFirstChild<Text>().Text = text;
            RunProperties runPro = new RunProperties();
            Highlight highlight = new Highlight { Val = HighlightColorValues.Yellow };
            Vanish vv = new Vanish();

            runPro.AppendChild(highlight);
            runPro.AppendChild(vv);
            highlightRun.InsertAt(runPro, 0);

            // Check if there's some text in the text run *after* the found text
            int remainderLength = found.TextNode.Text.Length - found.TokenIndex - text.Length;
            if (remainderLength > 0)
            {
                // There is some text after the highlighted section --
                // insert it in a separate text run after the highlighted text run
                var remainderRun = found.Run.CloneNode(true);
                paragraph.InsertAfter(remainderRun, highlightRun);
                var textNode = remainderRun.GetFirstChild<Text>();
                textNode.Text = found.TextNode.Text.Substring(found.TokenIndex + text.Length);

                // We need to set up this to preserve the spaces between text runs
                textNode.Space = new EnumValue<SpaceProcessingModeValues>(SpaceProcessingModeValues.Preserve);
            }

            // Check if there's some text *before* the found text
            if (found.TokenIndex > 0)
            {
                // Something is left before the highlighted text,
                // so make the original text run contain only that portion
                found.TextNode.Text = found.TextNode.Text.Remove(found.TokenIndex);

                // We need to set up this to preserve the spaces between text runs
                found.TextNode.Space = new EnumValue<SpaceProcessingModeValues>(SpaceProcessingModeValues.Preserve);
            }
            else
            {
                // There's nothing before the highlighted text -- remove the unneeded text run
                paragraph.RemoveChild(found.Run);
            }
        }

[twsouthwick]

The issue is that found.Run is not a child of paragraph. The documentation isn’t really helpful here and the exception wasn’t being populated with a message. I’ve supplied a PR for this.

To fix your code, you’ll need to insert/remove to/from the parent. So, instead of

paragraph.InsertAfter(highlightRun, found.Run);

do

found.Run.Parent.InsertAfter(highlightRun, found.Run);

You’ll also have an issue with paragraph.RemoveChild(found.Run), which you can replace with found.Run.Remove().

Hope that helps.

[mstoffel-infraserv]

The following function will reproduce the issue.

private static void OpenAndSearch(string filename)
        {
            //Open file
            WordprocessingDocument wordprocessingDocument = WordprocessingDocument.Open(filename, true);
            //Get main document part
            var docPart = wordprocessingDocument.MainDocumentPart;
            //go through paragraphs in document and highlight search text
            foreach (var paragraph in docPart.Document.Body.Descendants<Paragraph>())
            {
                HighLightText(paragraph, "612-000-0000");
            }
            //Close and save
            wordprocessingDocument.Close();
        }

  static void HighLightText(Paragraph paragraph, string text)
        {
            // Search for a first occurrence of the text in the text runs
            var found = paragraph
                .Descendants<Run>()
                .Where(r => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(r.InnerText) && r.InnerText != "\\s" && r.GetFirstChild<Text>() != null)
                .Select(r =>
                {
                    var runText = r.GetFirstChild<Text>();
                    int index = runText.Text.IndexOf(text, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

            // 'Run' is a reference to the text run we found,
            // TextNode is a reference to the run's Text object,
            // 'TokenIndex` is the index of the search string in run's text
            return new { Run = r, TextNode = runText, TokenIndex = index };
                })
                .FirstOrDefault(o => o.TokenIndex >= 0);

            // Nothing found -- escape
            if (found == null || found.Run == null)
            {
                return;
            }

            // Create a node for highlighted text as a clone (to preserve formatting etc)
            var highlightRun = found.Run.CloneNode(true);

            // Add the highlight node after the found text run and set up the highlighting
            paragraph.InsertAfter(highlightRun, found.Run);
            highlightRun.GetFirstChild<Text>().Text = text;
            RunProperties runPro = new RunProperties();
            Highlight highlight = new Highlight { Val = HighlightColorValues.Yellow };
            Vanish vv = new Vanish();

            runPro.AppendChild(highlight);
            runPro.AppendChild(vv);
            highlightRun.InsertAt(runPro, 0);

            // Check if there's some text in the text run *after* the found text
            int remainderLength = found.TextNode.Text.Length - found.TokenIndex - text.Length;
            if (remainderLength > 0)
            {
                // There is some text after the highlighted section --
                // insert it in a separate text run after the highlighted text run
                var remainderRun = found.Run.CloneNode(true);
                paragraph.InsertAfter(remainderRun, highlightRun);
                var textNode = remainderRun.GetFirstChild<Text>();
                textNode.Text = found.TextNode.Text.Substring(found.TokenIndex + text.Length);

                // We need to set up this to preserve the spaces between text runs
                textNode.Space = new EnumValue<SpaceProcessingModeValues>(SpaceProcessingModeValues.Preserve);
            }

            // Check if there's some text *before* the found text
            if (found.TokenIndex > 0)
            {
                // Something is left before the highlighted text,
                // so make the original text run contain only that portion
                found.TextNode.Text = found.TextNode.Text.Remove(found.TokenIndex);

                // We need to set up this to preserve the spaces between text runs
                found.TextNode.Space = new EnumValue<SpaceProcessingModeValues>(SpaceProcessingModeValues.Preserve);
            }
            else
            {
                // There's nothing before the highlighted text -- remove the unneeded text run
                paragraph.RemoveChild(found.Run);
            }
        }