Smart Documents Overview [Office 2003 SDK Documentation]

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What is a smart document?

Smart documents are documents that are programmed to determine what users need to do and to give those users help along the way. Smart documents are useful for documents that follow a specified process, such as an expense report, or that people use for specific content-creation tasks, such as writing a legal brief.

Smart documents are also flexible in terms of technology. Smart document dynamic-link library (DLL) files can be written in Microsoft® Visual Basic® version 6.0, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, C#, Microsoft Visual C++® version 6.0, Microsoft Visual C++® .NET, or any programming language designed for the Microsoft .NET Framework. You can even use the Microsoft Office Smart Tag List (MOSTL) Schema to create a smart document that uses XML to define the controls.

Because smart documents are designed for use within Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003, you can incorporate the features built into the applications into your smart documents. For example, you could create a form in Word that uses range protection to specify who has permission to modify certain sections of the form. The employee review form described below would be a great example of using this feature. You can include add-ins that can be used with a document or template, as well as macros that are inside the smart document itself.

In addition, smart documents can interact with a variety of databases, such as those created by using Microsoft SQL Server™ and Microsoft Office Access 2003, and they can use Microsoft BizTalk® Server for tracking workflow. They can even interact with other Microsoft Office 2003 applications; for example, they can send e-mail through Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 or create presentations in Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, as well as other client-side applications.

Smart documents can be deployed over a corporate network, an intranet, the Internet, through Web services, and through Web sites based on Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

Examples of smart documents

Following is a list of some of the types of documents that can be turned into smart documents.

Expense reports

Employee review forms

Newspaper and magazine articles

These types of documents often use common formatting or outlining standards. There might also be reusable elements, such as boilerplate text for legal documents, and there might be a workflow or review process that must be followed. All of these — formatting, boilerplate text, and process flow — are simplified by using a smart document.