Replace bookmark text in Word file using Open XML SDK

Question

I assume v2.0 is better... they have some nice "how to:..." examples but bookmarks don't seem to act as obviously as say a Table... a bookmark is defined by two XML elements BookmarkStart & BookmarkEnd. We have some templates with text in as bookmarks and we simply want to replace bookmarks with some other text... no weird formatting is going on but how do I select/replace bookmark text?

Answer 1

Here is how I do it in VB.NET:

For Each curBookMark In contractBookMarkStarts

      ''# Get the "Run" immediately following the bookmark and then
      ''# get the Run's "Text" field
      runAfterBookmark = curBookMark.NextSibling(Of Wordprocessing.Run)()
      textInRun = runAfterBookmark.LastChild

      ''# Decode the bookmark to a contract attribute
      lines = DecodeContractDataToContractDocFields(curBookMark.Name, curContract).Split(vbCrLf)

      ''# If there are multiple lines returned then some work needs to be done to create
      ''# the necessary Run/Text fields to hold lines 2 thru n.  If just one line then set the
      ''# Text field to the attribute from the contract
      For ptr = 0 To lines.Count - 1
          line = lines(ptr)
          If ptr = 0 Then
              textInRun.Text = line.Trim()
          Else
              ''# Add a <br> run/text component then add next line
              newRunForLf = New Run(runAfterBookmark.OuterXml)
              newRunForLf.LastChild.Remove()
              newBreak = New Break()
              newRunForLf.Append(newBreak)

              newRunForText = New Run(runAfterBookmark.OuterXml)
              DirectCast(newRunForText.LastChild, Text).Text = line.Trim

              curBookMark.Parent.Append(newRunForLf)
              curBookMark.Parent.Append(newRunForText)
          End If
      Next
Next

Answer 2

I just figured this out 10 minutes ago so forgive the hackish nature of the code.

First I wrote a helper recursive helper function to find all the bookmarks:

    private static Dictionary<string, BookmarkEnd> FindBookmarks(OpenXmlElement documentPart, Dictionary<string, BookmarkEnd> results = null, Dictionary<string, string> unmatched = null )
    {
        results = results ?? new Dictionary<string, BookmarkEnd>();
        unmatched = unmatched ?? new Dictionary<string,string>();

        foreach (var child in documentPart.Elements())
        {
            if (child is BookmarkStart)
            {
                var bStart = child as BookmarkStart;
                unmatched.Add(bStart.Id, bStart.Name);
            }

            if (child is BookmarkEnd)
            {
                var bEnd = child as BookmarkEnd;
                foreach (var orphanName in unmatched)
                {
                    if (bEnd.Id == orphanName.Key)
                        results.Add(orphanName.Value, bEnd);
                }
            }

            FindBookmarks(child, results, unmatched);
        }

        return results;
    }

That returns me a Dictionary that I can use to part through my replacement list and add the text after the bookmark:

       var bookMarks = FindBookmarks(doc.MainDocumentPart.Document);

        foreach( var end in bookMarks )
        {
            var textElement = new Text("asdfasdf");
            var runElement = new Run(textElement);

            end.Value.InsertAfterSelf(runElement);
        }

From what I can tell inserting into and replacing the bookmarks looks harder. When I used InsertAt instead of InsertIntoSelf I got: "Non-composite elements do not have child elements." YMMV

Answer 3

Here's my approach after using you guys as inspiration:

  IDictionary<String, BookmarkStart> bookmarkMap = 
      new Dictionary<String, BookmarkStart>();

  foreach (BookmarkStart bookmarkStart in file.MainDocumentPart.RootElement.Descendants<BookmarkStart>())
  {
      bookmarkMap[bookmarkStart.Name] = bookmarkStart;
  }

  foreach (BookmarkStart bookmarkStart in bookmarkMap.Values)
  {
      Run bookmarkText = bookmarkStart.NextSibling<Run>();
      if (bookmarkText != null)
      {
          bookmarkText.GetFirstChild<Text>().Text = "blah";
      }
  }