Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Web Applications The Complete Reference

CHAPTER 10 Word Automation Services

In Office 2007, Microsoft introduced a new file format called OpenXML. As an ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) standard, OpenXML is well documented and open to all developers to use as they see fit on all platforms.

One of the immediate benefits of this innovation is that it allows the programmatic creation and modification of Microsoft Office files such as Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. Before OpenXML, the only way to create or modify these documents was to automate the appropriate client application. Although this works well in a client scenario, performing such automation on a server is prone to problems. Using OpenXML, particularly with SharePoint, allows developers to create composite ...