Word Document Properties

Figure 11-1:
Save your
document
as XML by
using the
Save As
dialog box.
240
Part III: Expanding Your VBA Horizons 
Getting the scoop on XML
XML has become such a significant part of the
computer environment that you probably use it
every day, possibly without even knowing it. The
Internet has a considerable number of resources
to help you understand XML better. For example,
the W3C Schools site at 
http://www.
w3schools.com/xml/
provides a com-
plete XML tutorial, and you can discover XML
namespaces at 
http://www.zvon.org/
index.php?nav_id=172&ns=34
.
Many people already know enough about XML
to use it effectively, but they need a reference
to make XML easier to use. One of the better ref-
erence resources appears on the ZVON Web
site at 
http://www.zvon.org/xxl/xml
Schema2001Reference/Output/index.
html
. However, make sure that you also look at
the references at 
http://www.zvon.org/
xxl/xmlSchemaReference/Output/
index.html
for complete information. The
annotated XML reference at 
http://www.
xml.com/axml/axml.html
is handy for
seeing the specification and expert commentary
side by side.
If you need a full text on XML, get 
XML All-in-
One Desk Reference For Dummies, written by
Richard Wagner and Richard Mansfield (and
published by Wiley). This text provides, in a
series of seven books, everything you need in
order to work with XML. You’ll also find com-
plete coverage of XML-related technologies,
such as XSLT (described later in this chapter).
17_046500 ch11.qxp 12/5/06 5:37 PM Page 240

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This dialog box shows the default setup, which is to save the document by
using WordML (Word Markup Language) and not as standard XML. Using
WordML preserves the information in your document in an XML file that
Word can understand. Figure 11-2 shows a Firefox view of the information in a
simple Word document.
For those of you who are aware that both Firefox and Internet Explorer can
open an XML file, the two applications have a significant difference. Notice the

processing instruction
at the top of Figure 11-2. This instruction tells Internet Explorer to open a copy
of Word to process the file. Consequently, when you open the file by using
Internet Explorer, what you see is a copy of Word open, which means that you
don’t see the underlying XML. Internet Explorer is the only application that
appears to perform this automatic processing, so you can use any other XML
viewer or browser that supports XML to look at the Word XML file.
You might think this document is complex, but it isn’t too hard to understand
if you take it apart one piece at a time. For example, if you open the
element, you see a list
of document-information entries, such as the name of the author and the
company. Every entry that appears in the Document Properties dialog box
also appears as part of this element. You can also see elements devoted to
the document properties (such as the document view and default tab stop
settings), fonts, and styles.
Figure 11-2:
Use Firefox
to discover
important
information
about your
WordML
file.
241