Aitken Peter G. Powering Office 2003 with XML

Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2004. – 459 p.Microsoft Office has for years been the preferred suite of office productivity applications. This popularity was well deserved — the Office applications provided powerful and flexible tools for performing word processing, spreadsheet analysis, and other tasks. In particular, Office stood out in the ways that the different applications could share information with each other. An Excel chart could easily be embedded in a Word document, or an Excel worksheet could be automatically updated with information from an Access database, to give only two examples.
Over the past few years, however, the world of computing has undergone a sea change. We have moved away from application programs that exist in isolation on a single computer or, at most, a local area network (LAN). The trend is toward meeting the needs of businesses and other organizations with integrated solutions comprising multiple components existing on different computers and linked by the Internet or an intranet. In order to provide maximum flexibility, an individual application program must provide interoperability — the ability to exchange data with other programs regardless of the platform on which they are running. For reasons that are detailed in Chapter 2, Extensible Markup Language, or XML, has emerged as the de facto standard for data exchange.
Microsoft was well aware of the need for interoperability, and it has addressed it in a big way in the new version of Office. First, it’s created a new Office application called InfoPath designed for creating forms for entering and editing XML data. Second, it’s added powerful XML support to several of the existing Office applications. Yes, I know that the previous version also had some XML support, but that pales in comparison with what’s available now.About the Author: Peter G. Aitken has been writing about computer applications and programming for almost 20 years, with more than 35 books and hundreds of technical articles to his credit. His specialties include Office applications, graphics, XML, and Visual Basic programming. Peter is proprietor of PGA Consulting, providing application development and technical writing services to clients in business and academia.Enhancing Office with XML.
Office and XML Technology.
Why XML?
XML in Office 2003.
XML and Word.
XML and Excel.
XML and Access.
XML and InfoPath.What Is XML?
XML Overview.
XML Is a Markup Language.
XML Is Plain Text.
XML Is Extensible.
XML Supports Data Modeling.
XML Separates Storage from Display.
XML Is a Public Standard.
Background and Development of XML.
XML and Related Technologies.
XML Schema Definition Language.
Cascading Style Sheets.
Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations.Getting Going with XML and InfoPath.
Introduction to InfoPath.
What InfoPath Does.
InfoPath’s Two Modes.
Forms and Form Templates.
The InfoPath Screen.
Sample Forms.
Opening Forms.
Filling Out Forms.
Navigating a Form.
The Date Picker Control.
Inserting Hyperlinks.
The Picture Control.
Working with Views.
Working with Repeating Tables.
Inserting Sections.
Formatting with Rich Text Controls.
Font Formatting.
Inserting Images.
Highlighting.
Lists.
Text Alignment and Indentation.
Heading Styles.
Tables.
AutoComplete.
Correcting Forms.
Check Spelling.
Data Validation.
Merging Forms.
Saving and Sharing Forms.
Save the Form.
Save the Form as a Web Page.
Submit a Form.
E-Mail a Form.
InfoPath Form Security.
Basic Security.
Digital Signatures.Designing InfoPath Forms, Part 1.
Form Design Overview.
The Data Source.
The Visual Interface.
Starting a New Form.
With an Existing Data Structure.
Creating a Data Source from Scratch.
Saving and Opening Forms.
Working with the Data Source.
Adding to a Data Source.
Data Types.
Viewing Data Source Details.
Modifying a Data Source.
Form Layout.
Layout Tables.
Add a Layout Table.
Modifying a Layout Table.
Formatting a Layout Table.
Adding Content to a Layout Table.
Sections.
Color Schemes.
Form Views.
Creating a New View.
View Properties.Designing InfoPath Forms, Part 2.
Controls.
Control Overview.
Placing Controls on a Form.
Using the Repeating Table Control.
Using the List Controls.
Changing Control Type.
Changing Data Binding.
Data Binding Status.
Control Properties.
The Button Control.
Conditional Formatting.
Data Validation.
Required Data Validation.
Data Type Validation.
Data Value Validation.
Using Formulas on Forms.
Setting User Options.
Form Submission.
Form Merging.
Form Protection and Security.
Testing Your Form.
Publishing Your Form.Scripting with InfoPath.
Scripting Overview.
Background Information.
Setting the Scripting Language.
The Script Editor.
InfoPath Events.
Form-Level Events.
Data Validation Events.
The OnClick event.
Event Procedure Arguments.
The InfoPath Object Model.
Using the Object Browser.
Scripts and Security.
Debugging Scripts.
Script Examples.
Inserting the Date.
Performing Calculations.
Validating Data.
Selecting a View Based on Data.XML and Other Office Applications
Word and XML.
Using the WordML Schema.
Opening Other XML Files.
Creating a New XML Document.
Converting a Word Document to XML.
Editing Other XML Documents.
Adding Elements.
Deleting Elements.
Working with Attributes.
Formatting and Layout.
Saving Documents.
Document Validation.
Using Transforms.
Transforms for Displaying Documents.
Transforms for Saving Documents.
The Schema Library.
XML Options.
Protecting XML Tags and Data.Excel and XML.
XML and Lists.
The Sample Data and Schema.
The XML Source Task Pane.
Adding Maps.
Using Maps.
The List and XML Toolbar.
Opening XML Files.
Open as an XML List.
Open as a Read-Only Workbook.
Open Using the XML Source Task Pane.
Importing XML Data.
Importing into a New List.
Importing into an Existing List.
Working with XML Lists.
XML List Properties.
Formulas in Lists.
Exporting an XML List.
Other List Commands.
XML Data Validation.
Saving Workbooks as XML.Access and XML.
Importing XML Data and Schemas.
XML Data and Tables.
Importing Data.
Importing Structure.
Access and XML Data Types.
Exporting Access Objects to XML.
Sample Data.
The ReportML Vocabulary.
Export Basics.
XML Export Options.
Client versus Server.
XML Exporting versus HTML Exporting.
Exporting Live Data.
Deploying Your Application.FrontPage and XML.
XML-Based Data for the Web.
The Sample Data.
Viewing and Editing XML.
Using XML Web Parts.
Creating an XML Web Part.
A Web Part Example.
Using Data Views.
Creating a Data View.
The Data View Details Task Pane.Case Studies.
Connecting Word and InfoPath.
Overview.
The Scenario.
Create the Schema.
Design the InfoPath Form.
Create the Stylesheet.
Apply the Stylesheet.
Creating a Stylesheet with Formatting.
Define and Apply the Style.
The Style Definition.
Apply the Style.
Checking Namespaces.
Other Details.
Load and Apply the New Stylesheet.Connecting Excel and InfoPath.
Scenario.
Planning.
Create the Schema.
Design the InfoPath Form.
Create a New Form Template.
Selecting a Layout.
Adding Controls.
Fine-Tuning the Form.
Create the Workbook.
Import the Map.
Creating the XML List.
Importing the Sample Data.
The Workbook Analysis Functions.
Additional Considerations.
Data Validation.
Data Flow.Connecting Access and InfoPath.
The Scenario.
Creating the Database.
Database Design.
Creating a New Database and the Donors Table.
Define the Donations Table.
Defining the Relationship.
Designing the InfoPath Form.
Connect to the Data Source.
The New Form.
About the Data Source.
Modifying the Query View.
Starting the Data Entry View.
Fine-Tuning the Data Entry Form.
Adding a Submit Button.
Setting Form Submission Options.
Using the Form.Connecting FrontPage and InfoPath.
The Scenario.
Design the InfoPath Form.
Fill Out and Save the Form.
Design the Web Page.
Adding the In-Stock Data View.
Adding the Out-of-Stock Data View.
Using the Web Page.Connecting Word and FrontPage.
The Scenario.
Create the Schema.
Creating the Template.
Template Design: Schema and Visual Appearance.
Template Design: XML Mapping.
Create a Sample Data File.
Create the Web Page.
Create the Transform.
Create the XML Web Part.Connecting Web Publishing and InfoPath.
Overview.
The Scenario.
Designing the Form.
Creating the Data Source.
Designing the Form.
Save the Form as a Web Page.
Use a Transform to Create a Web Page.
Designing the Transform.
Initial Stylesheet Elements.
Other Stylesheet Elements.
Trying It Out. 1
Using an InfoPath Script to Apply the Transform.Appendix:
What’s on the Companion CD-ROM.
System Requirements.
Using the CD.
What’s on the CD.
Author-created materials.
Applications.
eBook Version of Powering Office 2003 with XML.
eBook Version of the Office 2003 Super Bible.
Troubleshooting.XML Fundamentals and Syntax.
Markup and Tags.
Document Structure.
XML Names.
Elements.
Nesting Elements.
The Document Element.
Empty Elements.
Attributes.
Special Attributes.
Entities.
The Document Element as Entity.
Internal Text Entities.
External Text Entities.
External Binary Entities.
Character Entities.
Character Data.
Notations.
Comments.
Processing Instructions.
White Space Issues.
A Complete XML Document.Data Modeling with XSD Schemas.
XSD Overview.
Namespaces.
Default Namespace Declarations.
Explicit Namespace Declarations.
XSD Data Types.
Simple Data Types.
Complex Data Types.
The schema Element.
A Schema Demonstration.
Appendix D XSLT and XPath.
XSLT.
XSLT Structure.
An XSLT Demonstration.
XSLT Templates.
Literal Text.
The xsl:text Element.
The xsl:value-of Element.
The xsl:if Element.
The xsl:choose Element.
The xsl:for-each Element.
The xsl:apply-templates Element.
The xsl:sort Element.
XPath.
XPath Patterns.
XPath Expressions.
Functions.