Using Content Controls to give Semantic Meaning to Content in Open XML WordprocessingML Documents

A wide variety of business applications can take advantage of content controls to give semantic meaning to content in Open XML WordprocessingML documents.  However, most applications that can benefit from content controls fit into one of three broad categories:

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    Blog TOCDocument generation systems that use a template document for configuration.

  • Content publishing systems that transform WordprocessingML to another document format.

  • Collaboration systems that extract data and content from word-processing documents.

We’ve written and published three MSDN articles that provide guidance around these three scenarios, as well as links to a number of resources to help get started.

Building Document Generation Systems from Templates with Word 2010 and Word 2007

Building Publishing Systems that Use Word 2010 or Word 2007

Using Open XML WordprocessingML Documents as Data Sources

Of course, these are not the only types of applications that can benefit from content controls.  I’ve used content controls for a number of other purposes, including using them to delineate code that you want to test using a test harness.  However, in speaking with a number of customers who use content controls, most uses fit into one of the three above categories.