Improve error message when failing to find the body element in a document

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/mammoth/docx/document_xml.py b/mammoth/docx/document_xml.py
index e0d19a4..45905c6 100644
--- a/mammoth/docx/document_xml.py
+++ b/mammoth/docx/document_xml.py
@@ -6,13 +6,17 @@ def read_document_xml_element(
         body_reader,
         notes=None,
         comments=None):
-    
+
     if notes is None:
         notes = []
     if comments is None:
         comments = []
-    
+
     body_element = element.find_child("w:body")
+
+    if body_element is None:
+        raise ValueError("Could not find the body element: are you sure this is a docx file?")
+
     return body_reader.read_all(body_element.children) \
         .map(lambda children: documents.document(
             children,