CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.netxmlms-word.net-3.0
Hershizer33
Hershizer33

Reputation: 1246

Alternatives to custom XML in Microsoft Word?

I have a legacy app which heavily uses Custom XML. A user provides a Word doc littered with custom XML (letter template), and then the code uses the custom XML tags to insert data from the DB thus dynamically turning the template into a full fledged Word doc.

However, as some of you are aware, Microsoft was sued over custom XML and lost back in 2009. Versions of Word 2003 and later now automatically convert custom XML tags to generic tags which of course breaks the parsing/data insert logic (ASPX/C#, .Net 3.0) on the app.

The department using this app doesn't really have the budget to fully re-write this logic, so I have a few questions. Are there any alternatives/ways around this (give users copies of Word 2003 might be too extreme haha)? I've herd OpenOffice might have support for this as well. Has anyone else had to deal with the outcome of this lawsuit, and if so what did you guys do?

Finally, if a re-write is the only option, whats the most time efficient way to replicate what custom XML was doing in work? I've herd of bookmarks or other such things but I'm not really a Word expert.

Let me know if you need any more information!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1349

Answers (1)

JasonPlutext
JasonPlutext

Reputation: 15878

There's Custom XML and Custom XML content control data binding. The latter was not the subject of the patent suit, and would work well for your purposes. Office 2007 and later though.

Upvotes: 1

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