Opening XML documents in Word 2004

[Mspence]

Does anyone know of a way to open xml documents in Word 2004 and have
them interpreted correctly? Currently, it just shows the xml code and
not the document.

Is there an xml interpretation add-on?

The users with xp machines and Office 2003, works fine. Users with mac
machines and Office 2004, does not work.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Mac]]

Hi Myron:

The short answer is "Mac Word is a cut-down of PC Word that won't do this."

The long answer is that Mac Word supports most of the XML objects defined in
Word Mark-up Language, which is an application of XML. But it doesn't
support transforms, style sheets, or DTDs. So "no" you must either stick to
legal and valid WordML, or abandon hopes of doing this in Mac Word.

Cheers

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Rob Daly [MSFT]]

Actually, MacWord 2004 does not support WordML either. XML (WordML or
otherwise) is currently only supported on WinWord 2003. The only workaround
I can suggest is to (a) open in WinWord and save a .doc. (which of course
defeats the purpose of having it in XML), or (b) open in an XML editor and
save as RTF (which of course defeats the purpose of having it in XML). For
now, those are the only two solutions available. Sincere apologies.

While we're at it, though - I'd love to know some of the needs and goals you
have with XML - feel free to barrage me with suggestions

Thanks,

--
Rob Daly
Macintosh Business Unit
Word Test

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[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Rob:

All Technical Writers want Military Specification SGML. So as soon as you
produce XML, we'll be in there making transforms to make MIL SPEC SGML

Very simply, we want robust long documents. We want a large (several
hundred) number of subdocuments. Conditional included text. Cascading
style sheets. Transforms. A validating parser. Prescriptive DTDs.

Think about producing the US Airforce's documentation. All of it. In
Microsoft Word. Because that's what we're trying to do.

I think it's fair to say that WinWord is nowhere near there either, yet.
They seem to have headed off on a very strange tangent: I can't see the
relevance of XML to the creation of "Forms", and I was completely unaware of
any growing requirement for better forms in Word. I *have* been aware of a
substantial requirement from all of the major players for robust long
documents in SGML since about 1990

We need unbreakable documents with complete platform independence. In Tech
Writing, I think we're pretty platform agnostic: we're likely to want to
swap documents repetitively back and forth between Mac and PC without
getting any issues or considerations. On a big project, Artwork department
will be using Macs, Software Development will be on something vaguely
Unix-like, The Tech Writers and most of the rest of the company will be
using Windows, but there will be people in MIS on a mainframe too

As an attainable goal to start

* The ability to round-trip XML to FrameMaker and back with no issues
* The ability to round-trip XML to PC Word and back with no issues.
* The ability for large documents with complex customised numbering schemes
to survive hacking and chopping by folks who don't know how to use Word
without suffering any corruptions.

If you are serious, ping me on my private email and I will send you a
description of the typical Tech Writing workflow and our wishlist.

Cheers

Actually, MacWord 2004 does not support WordML either. XML (WordML or
otherwise) is currently only supported on WinWord 2003. The only workaround
I can suggest is to (a) open in WinWord and save a .doc. (which of course
defeats the purpose of having it in XML), or (b) open in an XML editor and
save as RTF (which of course defeats the purpose of having it in XML). For
now, those are the only two solutions available. Sincere apologies.

While we're at it, though - I'd love to know some of the needs and goals you
have with XML - feel free to barrage me with suggestions

Thanks,

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Mspence]

Rob,

We have links on our website that allows users to click it and it will
automatically merge data into a document in Word. This allows
executives to be able to create quick mailing lists/documents without
having to perform the merge themselves and it always gives real time
data.

The primary document is created in Word, saved as an xml document and
then stored on the webserver. When the user selects the appropriate
report tha, it downloads the merge data and the primary document and
opens automatically in Word on the desktop. Then all the user has to
do is press print.

I hope that the Macintosh Business Unit will be able to provide a
solution to this very soon. It's funny, but I am finding that many
businesses are starting to have their contingent of mac users increase
due to the reliability of the software, the ease of integration on the
network, and compatibility issues rapidly decreasing. Before, I would
find 1-2% of users being mac users...now I'm finding about 10-15%,
sometimes 20%. What's funny, is that even if the corporation
(typically the IT folks) does not allow too many macs, many of the
users have macs at home.

Thanks for your help,

Myron