This seminar covers the file formats used by past, present and future versions of Microsoft Office. The binary file formats used in Office 2003 and earlier are covered, as well as the new Office Open XML file formats used in Office 2007.

Level

Intermediate

Audience

Office Code Center Premium licensees

Description

This seminar presents the design and implementation of the various Office file formats. The information presented in this seminar is crucial for anyone needing to manage, maintain, or transform Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) files. Without the information provided in this seminar it would be extremely difficult – if not impossible – to write software to access or modify Office files.

One day is spent on legacy (Office 2003 and earlier) file formats, and four days are devoted to the new XML-based formats. For those without a strong background in XML and C#, the first day is an optional introduction to XML and how to access XML files using C# and the .NET framework (the Open Office XML file format relies upon the Open Packaging Convention (OPC); the .NET framework provides many APIs for manipulating OPC files).

Topics

• Introduction to XML

• OpenXML architecture

• XML programming in .net and C#

• Office Open XML Packages

• WordprocessingML

• Custom XML

• SpreadsheetML

• DrawingML

• PresentationML

• XSLT and Open XML

• Legacy (Office 2003, Office 2000) file formats

Prerequisites

• Experience with Office at the "power user," developer, or system administrator level; and

• Some reading familiarity with the C and C++ programming languages.

This Workshop is for authorized source code licensees, as determined by Microsoft. If you have any questions about whether you are an authorized licensee, please contact the Windows Source Licensing Team at cpfeed@microsoft.com .

Office versions

Office 2007, Office 2003, Office 2000

Duration and formats

5 days lecture with labs

Labs

The seminar includes a series of lab exercises involving writing code to interface with a variety of types of Office OpenXML documents. Solutions to all lab problems will be provided.