MS Word function to append a Range to a document - vba

Question

Suppose I want to add some text at the end of a document and immediately access
it as a Range object so I can set some properties of it without affecting the preceding text. Ideally, the Range.InsertAfter
method would return a Range object which would be perfect for this, but it doesn't.
It irks me that Word must know perfectly well what range defines the result of calling InsertAfter, but on the face of it, I need to calculate it "after the fact" from the length of the inserted text, or in some other way.
So I've devised a simple-minded work-around. In pseudo-code (actually it's Delphi
code but I hope that won't discourage VBA answers) what I do is this
ARange := Document.Range
ARange.Text := 'AAA'
AEnd := ARange.End - 1 // AEnd is an integer
ARange.SetRange(AEnd, AEnd)
ARange.Text := 'XXX'
ARange.Bold := True
and it seems that I can carry on indefinitely adding blocks of text to the end
of a document by repeating the second block of code.
The line
ARange.SetRange(AEnd, AEnd)
as I understand it, seems to construct a new Range at the end of the existing one (unlike calling Collapse on an existing range),
and works fine for the simple test cases I've tried. But it leaves me wondering
whether I'm missing a trick somewhere. Is there a more direct way to append a range
to a document and get a reference to it?
PS: I should have been a bit clearer that I'm trying to do this without using the Selection object (for a variety of reasons, including the fact that you can only have one of them at at time).

Answer 1

There are various ways to get the Range at the end of the document. You've discovered one, but as you say, it's somewhat circuitous. My preference:
Word.Range rngEndOfDoc = Document.Content;
//Content returns a Range object and is a property, not a method like Range()
rngEndOfDoc.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseEnd);
rngEndOfDoc.Text = "Text at the end of the document";
Collapsing the Range is conceptually like pressing the Right (or Left) arrow key when you have a selection. So rngEndOfDoc becomes a "point" rather than containing the entire content of the main body of the document.
FWIW I can never think of a situation when I'd use EndKey for this (emulate user actions) and I'd only change the Selection when I want to leave the user at the end of the document so that he can start typing at that location.

Answer 2

With thanks for the three admirable answers from others, I thought I would add my
own. The following are two versions of the function that I started out wishing Word provided
natively, returning an appended range.
The first version uses the MS Word objects in the MS Word Type Library import
unit that traditionally comes with Delphi (e.g. the Word2000.Pas one), and uses "early binding" automation,
while the second version does the same thing using late binding.
function AppendRange(InputRange : Range) : Range;
var
Direction : OleVariant;
begin
Result := InputRange;
Direction := wdCollapseEnd;
Result.Collapse(Direction);
end;
function AppendRangeLB(InputRange : OleVariant) : OleVariant;
begin
Result := InputRange;
Result.Collapse(wdCollapseEnd);
end;
Usage is e.g.
AppendedRange := AppendRange(ExistingRange);
AppendedRange.Text := 'YYY';

Answer 3

Think of the Document.Range as the union of all the possible ranges in the main document (i.e. apart from headings, footers, floating stuff etc.). It always starts before the first character and ends after the last character (that, in my experience, is always a hidden paragraph mark). It is not possible to define another range that is after the current Document.Range or, conceptually "append" anything after Document.Range, because there is no "after" the Document.Range (it always reaches to the end).
Thus, to extend a document with new text or other inline objects, you have to insert them at the end of the Document.Range - actually just before the end, as that last, hidden, paragraph mark must still be the final character of the document. This is just what you are doing in your pseudocode.
In VBA, an empty range at the end of the document can be referenced with
Document.Range(Document.Range.End-1, Document.Range.End-1)
Attempting to define it at Document.Range.End actually raises an error, as it points to after that last (hidden) character - and that is out of the Document - that is why we need the "-1".
After getting this range we may fill it with stuff - expanding it and, logically, the Document.Range. For example, to add text at the end of the active document, one would write
ActiveDocument.Range(ActiveDocument.Range.End-1, ActiveDocument.Range.End-1).Text = "New Text"
Notice that the same "final" empty range can be reached with:
Document.Bookmarks("\EndOfDoc").Range

Answer 4

The following works for me in Word 15 (Office 365) using the Word 2010 type library (I'm using early binding, but it should work the same with late binding as well). Word is a TWordApplication, and aRange is a WordRange.
Word.Selection.EndKey(wdStory, wdMove);
aRange := Word.Selection.Range;
aRange.Text := 'This is new text added at the end.';