Using the OpenXml SDK 2.0 to insert tables in a word document

Question

I am just starting out with the OpenXML SDK 2.0 in Visual Studio 2010 (C#). I have automated office programs before using COM automation, which was painful.

I have a template made by one of our graphic designers, which will provide the foundation for my reports. In order to automate the simple things (plaintext items) I have added content controls to the template and bound a custom XML part to the doc. The content controls are as follows:

DayCount
AlternateJobTitle
Date
SignatureName

After making a copy of the template, I then edit the content controls and save the file with the following code:

//stand up object that reads the Word doc package
using (WordprocessingDocument doc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(docOutputPath, true))
  {
    //create XML string matching custom XML part
    string newXml = "<root>" +
                    "<DayCount>42</DayCount>" +
                    "<AlternateJobTitle>Supervisor</AlternateJobTitle>" +
                    "<Date>9/24/2012</Date>" +
                    "<SignatureName>John Doe</SignatureName>" +
                    "</root>";

    MainDocumentPart main = doc.MainDocumentPart;
    main.DeleteParts<CustomXmlPart>(main.CustomXmlParts);

    //add and write new XML part
    CustomXmlPart customXml = main.AddCustomXmlPart(CustomXmlPartType.CustomXml);
    using (StreamWriter ts = new StreamWriter(customXml.GetStream()))
    {

       ts.Write(newXml);
    }
}

This all works well. However, my document is not made up solely of standard text and plaintext updates. The real meat of the report is in a number of tables that need to be added to each report as well. I have been searching like crazy for a good description on how this is done, but have really not found anything. Is there some way to delineate where to place a table using the same content control logic used for plaintext controls? Any code samples I have found of creating a table using OpenXML have just assumed that you want to append it to the end of the main document part. I would like to specify where the tables need to go in the template, generate the tables and place them in the specified regions of the template. Is this possible?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Shelest Shelest · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-20T16:30:38

There are a lot of OpenXml creation questions. But if you decide to take this path - answer is general - examine OpenXml Productivity Tool. At my PC it could be found at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Open XML SDK\V2.0\tool\OpenXmlSdkTool.exe". Just create in MsWord document which you want to create using OpenXml and reflect document's code using this tool. Good luck!

Using the OpenXml SDK 2.0 to insert tables in a word document

2 Answers