Custom XML tags in word documents is used in one of out applications. Now 
because of the i4i judgment we have to find a way to make it work without 
changing too much. 
It looks like the patch removing the custom xml support DOES NOT remove the 
actual editor. You still can place tags and manipulate them. 

The only problem is that you cannot save document with tags. To be more 
precise the next time you open saved document the tags will not be there. In 
other words the editor is there but it is useless. Which makes me wonder - is 
the editor there just by accident and will disappear in the future, or I just 
do not know how to save the document with the tags (i what format or what 
have you)

Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the new version of Word that 
implements the various restrictions you now face, so can only make some 
suggestions.

  a. AIUI the restrictions only apply to new copies of Word 2007 
purchased in the USA, and will presumably be applied to the release 
version of Word 2010 unless the judgment is overturned. And possibly 
Word 2010 will drop this stuff even then - I don't know. So if you only 
need a short-term solution for Word users who can obtain a version of 
Word that works, you are probably OK, but I agree there is a problem if 
you need your documents to be useable by any Word 2007 user, or to be 
usable longer term when 2010 arrives.
  b. you should at least be able to see whether the custom XML is being 
saved by either
     - opening it in a copy of Word that does not have the restriction 
(assuming you have such a copy) or
     - extracting the main document.xml part from your .docm/.docx and 
inspecting the XML, or
     - saving as WordProcessingML/WordML .xml format, which you can 
inspect without that extraction step.
  c. AFAICS there is no simple alternative in Word to the built-in 
feature that has been removed. If I had to consider replacing it I would 
probably think in terms of
     - using Word 2007 and later only
     - designing and implementing a SmartDocument (probably using .NET 
and VSTO) that used content controls instead of the elements you are 
probably used to, and perhaps tried to emulate the XML Structure pane 
that you may be using. However, I have no idea how well that could be 
made to replace existing functions. I suspect creating a general-purpose 
version that could work with an arbitrary schema would be difficult and 
expensive, and that you would end up doing one specialised SmartDocument 
for each schema/document you need to work with. Then you have to 
consider deployment, maintenance, etc.

Since I don't understand the basis on which the judgment was made it 
isn't completely clear to me why Microsoft people seem to believe that 
only the type of custom XML used for tagging is affected. Perhaps the 
consequences of getting rid of the custom XML used for holding the 
new-style custom properties used with SharePoint is just too much for 
them to contemplate.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

On 01/03/2010 14:38, Michael Feingold wrote:
> Custom XML tags in word documents is used in one of out applications. Now
> because of the i4i judgment we have to find a way to make it work without
> changing too much.
> It looks like the patch removing the custom xml support DOES NOT remove the
> actual editor. You still can place tags and manipulate them.
>
> The only problem is that you cannot save document with tags. To be more
> precise the next time you open saved document the tags will not be there. In
> other words the editor is there but it is useless. Which makes me wonder - is
> the editor there just by accident and will disappear in the future, or I just
> do not know how to save the document with the tags (i what format or what
> have you)