Eric White's Blog

DocumentBuilder 2.0 is a much-improved version of the DocumentBuilder class that is part of PowerTools for Open XML. Using DocumentBuilder, you can split Open XML WordprocessingML documents apart, and merge and combine them in a variety of ways. DocumentBuilder deals with the many issues associated with interrelated markup in Open XML WordprocessingML.

This third screen-cast in this 3 part series explains how DocumentBuilder is data-driven so that it is more robust.

You can find a complete list of DocumentBuilder 2.0 content as well as links to download it in the DocumentBuilder Wiki Page on OpenXMLDeveloper.org.

Before watching this screen-cast, be sure to watch the first in the series and the second in the series.

DocumentBuilder 2.0 is a much-improved version of the DocumentBuilder class that is part of PowerTools for Open XML.  Using DocumentBuilder, you can split Open XML WordprocessingML documents apart, and merge and combine them in a variety of ways.  DocumentBuilder deals with the many issues associated with interrelated markup in Open XML WordprocessingML.

You can find a complete list of DocumentBuilder 2.0 content as well as links to download it in the DocumentBuilder Wiki Page on OpenXMLDeveloper.org.

Before watching this screen-cast, be sure to watch the first in the series.

I’ve put together the first of three screen-casts that discusses DocumentBuilder 2.0 in depth. This first screen-cast shows how to download, build, and run DocumentBuilder. In addition, it walks through one scenario of interrelated markup, and shows how DocumentBuilder solves the issues around interrelated markup.

In addition, I’ve put together a DocumentBuilder Resource Center, which lists all the content on DocumentBuilder 2.0. I plan on putting together a number of blog posts and screen-casts about DocumentBuilder over the next two months, and that page will be where I will aggregate links to all of the DocumentBuilder 2.0 content.

The following screen-cast is a bit long – 20 minutes – but it contains important information for developers who want to know how DocumentBuilder works.

On June 20, 2011 (two days ago), I posted an update to DocumentBuilder. After more extensive testing, I found and fixed a few bugs in less common scenarios, including if comments in multiple sources contain images, multiple sources contain endnotes with images, and a few other situations. If you have downloaded DocumentBuilder 2.0, please re-download it.

At long last, I have completed and posted a much requested and sorely needed update to DocumentBuilder. DocumentBuilder is code that is part of the PowerTools for Open XML project that handles issues of interrelated markup, enabling you to generate new documents from existing documents in a variety of ways. Many more details on OpenXMLDeveloper.org.

We have some great news – OpenXMLDeveloper.org has gone through a significant upgrade! The underlying platform has been upgraded from Community Server 2.1 to Community Server 5.6, which means that we’ll have much better capabilities available in the platform. A few highlights of the new site:

• A reputation system has been added to the system. This will allow you to increase in seniority and ownership in the community.
• With CAPTCHA filters, email verification and ability to block IP address and specific word tags, we’ll have much better capabilities to eliminate spam.
• We’ve created the most comprehensive list of Open XML developer resources on the web! We’ve listed more than 300 of the important articles, blog posts, and videos out there. You can navigate by keyword, i.e. see all content about WordprocessingML, or content that relates to Open XML and SharePoint. You can get started browsing the contents here.
• Content rating system and ‘Friend’ system. You can identify the content that has been highly rated, and the content that your friends rate highly.
• Better form features, including much better ability to post code in the forums (HURRAY!!!)
• Better formatting capabilities for articles and blog posts – they need not look so plain, and it will be significantly easier for us to add other types of media such as videos.

I’ve written a blog post and recorded a screen-cast around table markup in SpreadsheetML.  It is pretty easy to create a worksheet, populate cells in the worksheet, and then convert the cells to a table.  Tables in Excel 2010, as you probably know, look like this:

Here is the screen-cast that explains table markup, and walks through creation of a small Open XML SDK program that converts ordinary SpreadsheetML cells into a table:

Searching and replacing text in an Open XML WordprocessingML document is not awfully difficult, but there are a few issues that complicate the process.  The text that you are searching for may span multiple runs, so the algorithm that searches for text needs to take this into account.  The replacement text should have the character formatting of the first character of the string in the document that matches the search string.  I’ve written a blog post at OpenXMLDeveloper.org that presents the algorithm, as well as example code written using XmlDocument (Microsoft’s implementation of XML DOM).  In addition, I’ve recorded a screen cast that explains the algorithm:

I’ve written a short article at OpenXMLDeveloper.org that shows how to detect tracked revisions using XmlDocument. Previously, I wrote an article on detecting tracked revisions using LINQ to XML or the strongly-typed object model of the Open XML SDK 2.0. However, some developers do not have the option of using LINQ, and instead must use one of a variety of XML DOM Document implementations. The OpenXMLDeveloper.org article presents some XmlDocument code that is pretty easy to translate to other languages and platforms.

I’ve recorded a short screen-cast that explores some approaches to setting margins in a word-processing document.  I show setting margins for cells, paragraphs, and sections.