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Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is the ubiquitous tool that does not play well with others. It has a long history of file format changes and inscrutable macros. Whether it can be used in conjunction with an XML content repository and how well it can be used comes down to two things: styles and templates.

To use Microsoft Word as an authoring tool is certainly possible. It is a fairly simple process to create an XSLT to convert XML content into a *.doc or *.rtf format so that it can be brought into Word. For example, if you are working with an XML document instance, you can process that instance into an *.rtf and send it to a reviewer who prefers to edit in Word. The problem happens when that review is returned to you and you wish to transfer those edits back into the XML content.

Because users seldom use Microsoft Word properly3, it is seldom possible to convert Microsoft Word files to XML programmatically. Therefore, using Word decreases the efficiency and productivity of the designers. Word does not operate in a manner consistent with structured documents. Using Word to author XML is like eating soup with a fork: you can do it, but it complicates things.

It is also true that practically every new version of Microsoft Word incorporates a plethora of undocumented changes in the file format used by Word. It is not necessary to purchase a new copy of Word to experience these changes. Very often Microsoft pushes fixes for security vulnerabilities in common programs in Windows Service Packs. Changes in the format of the resulting Word files invalidates any programmatic automation that has been created. For this reason, most XML content systems transfer files to and from Word using the more stable, but less capable *.rtf format.

Many people consider that Microsoft Word has no place in an enterprise XML content reuse system. Some dedicated XML editors, such as Epic (see below) include filters to import Word content to XML.

Some other Microsoft programs, such as PowerPoint, can be used to author content and have very similar advantages and disadvantages to Word. Other Microsoft programs, such as Publisher or Front Page pose another order of magnitude of difficulty in interoperating with content reuse systems.


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root 2003-07-21