Does anybody know if there is a way to access custom XML in MS Word (2007 & later) documents?
Because MS Word's document properties don't update in the fields without a macro, I’ve been doing a little research for a better solution . I came across a couple interesting and potentially useful discussions. The first one describes and demonstrates how to use XML documents in EPDM…
Joy Garon provided some links to using XML in word 2007 and later…
It was a good introduction to XML in Word documents, and the new content controls, but it didn’t explain how to bind custom XML data to the content controls in the documents. Fortunately, the following link explained this well...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264571.aspx (Mapping XML to content controls via VBA code)
Even better, the following link has a toolkit that will help users map XML to word documents without coding…
In the above link, there is also a link to a (long) video that explains the toolkit and how it is used…
So, I tried it out using the toolkit and it works great in MS Word 2010! The content updates without the headache of a custom update macro in every document. The as soon as the XML data is changed the Word document shows those changes everywhere.
Now, the only problem I have is how to map variables in EPDM to the custom XML in MS Word. If that can work, then a whole realm of possibilities opens up. But nothing in the Administration Guide is mentioned about mapping EPDM variables to custom XML data within MS Word.
So, I am wondering, has anyone has figured out a way to map EPDM variables to custom XML data in MS word documents?
Okay...
So, judging by the crickets chirping in the room, either nobody has attempted this, or nobody has found a way to access cusomt XML in MS office documents from EPDM.
So, I'm curious how many folks would find this useful? How many of you would like to dump that VBA routine to update fields in your Word documents and be able to read custom XML data in a MS Office document?
If you would like to see this kind of functionality in EPDM, please at least hit the "Like" button in this post.