Generating Table of Contents and Applying a Custom Style

Question

 A couple of questions:

1. What is the best way to update the TOC in an Open XML word document? Is there something in the SDK that will do this?
2.  When importing XHTML using the AltChunk method the text always  uses the "Normal" style defined in word. Is there anyway to impose a custom defined word style on these imported chunks? My colleague has tried setting the paragraph and run font properties and has also tried setting the class on the imported XHTML without success.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Creating a table of contents requires some kind of layout engine in order to determine page numbers. As you may know, the Open XML SDK does not perform layout functionality. That being said, there is a way around this limitation.  You can let Word update the TOC on open by doing the following to the markup:

1. Set the dirty attribute to have a value of true within the fldChar element
2. Set the upateFileds element in Settings.xml to be true

Zeyad

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Zeyad Rajabi (MS)

Answer 2

Zeyad,

Thank you for this helpful information. Can you expand on it please?  I am new to Open XML and could use some clarification, specifically:

1) Which fldChar element should have the 'dirty' attribute? My sample docx has several fldChar elements but it is not clear which of them are associated with the TOC.
2) My docx does not have a settings.xml file, do I need to add one?


Thanks!

Answer 3

Unfortunately, it doesn't help me. Word 2007 doesn't update content of TOC on open :(

Answer 4

I haven't found this to work at all.  I can set updateFields to "true" but then validation for the document fails stating that updateFields is an invalid child element for w:settings?  The documentation would disagree, so I'm at a loss as to why the validator would appear to be lying.  Any thoughts?

Answer 5

Sorry but just tried the above solution and it fails for me as well. I get the validation error on document.xml after adding the updateFields to the settings.xml?

Answer 6

In terms of Office/SharePoint 2007, my colleague installed Word on the server (not ideal) to get the desired functionality with TOC update and PDF conversion.

And while this is not an answer for MOSS, it's worthwhile pointing out that Word Automation Services in SharePoint 2010 provides this functionality: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff742315.aspx#woas_integrating

The key line of code is:

job.Settings.UpdateFields = True

Cheers.

Answer 7

Sorry but just tried the above solution and it fails for me as well. I get the validation error on document.xml after adding the updateFields to the settings.xml?

Any help on this? I am having the same problem.

Answer 8

This whole OOXML stuff is amazing me more and more. Alas not always in a positive way....  There's so much potential but so little documentation!!!

I just would like to enter some code in VS2008 using OOXML SDK2, to let Word re-generate (or generate, which is easier???) the TOC in my document. I keep trying but cant' seem to find the right bits of the parts of the package....

Answer 9

I've written some code that correctly sets the w:updateFields element in the settings part.  The code shows how to add/update a TOC in a document.  Updating is either via Word automation, or Word Automation Services.

Exploring tables of contents in OpenXML WordprocessingML documents.

-Eric

 

Answer 10

This thread on Stack Overflow might be useful to read: How to generate Table Of Contents using OpenXML SDK 2.0?

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