How to: Add a New Document Part to a Package

Applies to: Excel 2010 | Office 2010 | PowerPoint 2010 | Word 2010

In this article
Packages and Document Parts
Getting a WordprocessingDocument Object
Basic Structure of a WordProcessingML Document
How the Sample Code Works
Sample Code

This topic shows how to use the classes in the Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office to add a document part (file) to a word processing document programmatically.

The following assembly directives are required to compile the code in this topic.

using System.IO;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;

Imports System.IO
Imports DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging

Packages and Document Parts

An Open XML document is stored as a package, whose format is defined by ISO/IEC 29500-2. The package can have multiple parts with relationships between them. The relationship between parts controls the category of the document. A document can be defined as a word-processing document if its package-relationship item contains a relationship to a main document part. If its package-relationship item contains a relationship to a presentation part it can be defined as a presentation document. If its package-relationship item contains a relationship to a workbook part, it is defined as a spreadsheet document. In this how-to topic, you will use a word-processing document package.

Getting a WordprocessingDocument Object

The code starts with opening a package file by passing a file name to one of the overloaded Open() methods of the DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging.WordprocessingDocument that takes a string and a Boolean value that specifies whether the file should be opened for editing or for read-only access. In this case, the Boolean value is true specifying that the file should be opened in read/write mode.

using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, true))
{
    // Insert other code here.
}

Using wordDoc As WordprocessingDocument = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, True)
    ' Insert other code here.
End Using

The using statement provides a recommended alternative to the typical .Create, .Save, .Close sequence. It ensures that the Dispose method (internal method used by the Open XML SDK to clean up resources) is automatically called when the closing brace is reached. The block that follows the using statement establishes a scope for the object that is created or named in the using statement, in this case wordDoc. Because the WordprocessingDocument class in the Open XML SDK automatically saves and closes the object as part of its System.IDisposable implementation, and because the Dispose method is automatically called when you exit the block; you do not have to explicitly call Save and Close─as long as you use using.

Basic Structure of a WordProcessingML Document

The basic document structure of a WordProcessingML document consists of the document and body elements, followed by one or more block level elements such as p, which represents a paragraph. A paragraph contains one or more r elements. The r stands for run, which is a region of text with a common set of properties, such as formatting. A run contains one or more t elements. The t element contains a range of text. The WordprocessingML markup for the document that the sample code creates is shown in the following code example.

<w:document xmlns:w="https://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main">
  <w:body>
    <w:p>
      <w:r>
        <w:t>Create text in body - CreateWordprocessingDocument</w:t>
      </w:r>
    </w:p>
  </w:body>
</w:document>

Using the Open XML SDK 2.0, you can create document structure and content using strongly-typed classes that correspond to WordprocessingML elements. You can find these classes in the DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing namespace. The following table lists the class names of the classes that correspond to the document, body, p, r, and t elements,

How the Sample Code Works

After opening the document for editing, in the using statement, as a WordprocessingDocument object, the code creates a reference to the MainDocumentPart part and adds a new custom XML part. It then reads the contents of the external file that contains the custom XML and writes it to the CustomXmlPart part.

MainDocumentPart mainPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart;
CustomXmlPart myXmlPart = mainPart.AddCustomXmlPart(CustomXmlPartType.CustomXml);

using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open))
{
    myXmlPart.FeedData(stream);
}

Dim mainPart As MainDocumentPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart

Dim myXmlPart As CustomXmlPart = mainPart.AddCustomXmlPart(CustomXmlPartType.CustomXml)

Using stream As New FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open)
    myXmlPart.FeedData(stream)
End Using

Sample Code

The following code adds a new document part that contains custom XML from an external file and then populates the part. To call the AddCustomXmlPart method in your program, you can use the following example that modifies the file "myPkg2.docx" by adding a new document part to it.

string document = @"C:\Users\Public\Documents\myPkg2.docx";
string fileName = @"C:\Users\Public\Documents\myXML.xml";
AddNewPart(document, fileName);

Dim document As String = "C:\Users\Public\Documents\myPkg2.docx"
Dim fileName As String = "C:\Users\Public\Documents\myXML.xml"
AddNewPart(document, fileName)

Following is the complete code example in both C# and Visual Basic.

// To add a new document part to a package.
public static void AddNewPart(string document, string fileName)
{
    using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, true))
    {
        MainDocumentPart mainPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart;

        CustomXmlPart myXmlPart = mainPart.AddCustomXmlPart(CustomXmlPartType.CustomXml);

        using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open))
        {
            myXmlPart.FeedData(stream);
        }
    }
}

' To add a new document part to a package.
Public Sub AddNewPart(ByVal document As String, ByVal fileName As String)
    Using wordDoc As WordprocessingDocument = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, True)
        Dim mainPart As MainDocumentPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart
        
        Dim myXmlPart As CustomXmlPart = mainPart.AddCustomXmlPart(CustomXmlPartType.CustomXml)
        
        Using stream As New FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open)
            myXmlPart.FeedData(stream)
        End Using
    End Using
End Sub

See Also

Reference

Class Library Reference