Question

Using Word 2010 GUI, there is an option to “Insert text from file…”, which does exactly that: It insert the text in the main part of a document to the current location in your document.

I would like to do the same using C# and the OpenXml SDK 2.0

using (var mainDocument = WordprocessingDocument.Open("MainFile.docx", true);
{
    var mainPart = mainDocument.MainDocumentPart;
    var bookmarkStart = mainPart
                        .Document
                        .Body
                        .Descendants<BookmarkStart>()
                        .SingleOrDefault(b => b.Name == "ExtraContentBookmark");
    var extraContent = GetTextFromFile("ExtraFile.docx");

    bookmarkStart.InsertAfterSelf(extraContent);
}

I have tried using plain Xml (XElement), using OpenXmlElement (MainDocumentPart.Document.Body.Descendants), and using AltChunk. Every alternative so far has yielded a non-conformant docx-file.

What should the method GetTextFromFile look like?

Answer 1

It is not as simple as inserting the descendants of the document body tag at the bookmark location. Some reasons:

• The two documents may be using different styles; you would have to copy across dependant styles, or update the references to use the styles in the destination document.
• The <bookmarkStart> tag can appear almost anywhere in a document, including inside a paragraph, a run, a table cell, etc. Since you cannot nest paragraphs or runs, you will have to determine where the bookmark is situated, then ascend/descend the XML tree until you find an appropriate place to insert the content.

What you’re trying to do becomes quite a complicated task when using the OpenXml SDK. It requires an in-depth understanding of the format and its schema.

I would almost advise using VSTO/OLE automation instead, as it enables you to use the functionality that is built into Word.