Occurrences

Paper

../papers/02-06-03/02-06-03.html

Date of Presentation

Tuesday, 21 May

Time of Presentation

14.00

Presentation Level

In-The-Middle

Abstract

It is a fact that Microsoft Word is the most commonly used document preparation system today that is available on nearly every desktop computer. And as such Microsoft Word is typically not only deployed as a type-writer like, easy-to-use document editor but also, in spite of all prejudice, as a capable document formatting-engine that suffices for many applications. However, it lacks direct XML support in both usage scenarios. A first major drawback when using Microsoft Word to process documents seems to be its WYSIWYG based user-interface paradigm that does not force its users to structure their documents logically while creating them. Simply type and format - that's the typical way how Word documents are prepared, leading often to unstructured accumulations of text that may be printed - but do not represent any further going value. However, this WYSIWYG paradigm may be the simple admission ticket for many typical Microsoft Word users into the world of XML documents. Strictly following some simple rules, they may prepare - with the help of their accustomed document editor - documents that may be translated automatically and tool-based into XML of reasonably good quality. A second major drawback when using Microsoft Word seems to be its seclusiveness to the import of documents in any open format for structured documents like XML. Microsoft Word accepts as input formats mostly proprietary formats but was not opened by Microsoft to any new idea that aroused in the application domain of XML and its accompanying standards. This paper describes in general the basic architecture needed to embed Microsoft Word into an environment enabling the import, export and roundtrip of XML documents. In particular it describes the two tools downCast and upCast that implement such an XML architecture for Microsoft Word based on the additional standards XSL and CSS.