Duplicating Word document using OpenXml and C#

Question

I am using Word and OpenXml to provide mail merge functionality in a C# ASP.NET web application:

1) A document is uploaded with a number of pre-defined strings for substitution.

2) Using the OpenXML SDK 2.0 I open the Word document, get the mainDocumentPart as a string and perform the substitution using Regex.

3) I then create a new document using OpenXML, add a new mainDocumentPart and insert the string resulting from the substitution into this mainDocumentPart.

However, all formatting/styles etc. are lost in the new document.

I'm guessing I can copy and add the Style, Definitions, Comment parts etc.. individually to mimic the orginal document.

However is there a method using Open XML to duplicate a document allowing me to perform the substitutions on the new copy?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The original question was asked before a number of helpful features were added to the Open XML SDK. Nowadays, if you already have an opened WordprocessingDocument, you would simply clone the original document and perform whatever transformation on that clone.

// Say you have done this somewhere before you want to duplicate your document.
using WordprocessingDocument originalDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open("original.docx", false);

// Then this is how you can clone the opened WordprocessingDocument.
using var newDoc = (WordprocessingDocument) originalDoc.Clone("copy.docx", true);

// Perform whatever transformation you want to do.
PerformTransformation(newDoc);

You can also clone on a Stream or Package. Overall, you have the following options:

OpenXmlPackage Clone()

OpenXmlPackage Clone(Stream stream)
OpenXmlPackage Clone(Stream stream, bool isEditable)
OpenXmlPackage Clone(Stream stream, bool isEditable, OpenSettings openSettings)

OpenXmlPackage Clone(string path)
OpenXmlPackage Clone(string path, bool isEditable)
OpenXmlPackage Clone(string path, bool isEditable, OpenSettings openSettings)

OpenXmlPackage Clone(Package package)
OpenXmlPackage Clone(Package package, OpenSettings openSettings)

Have a look at the Open XML SDK documentation for details on those methods.

Having said that, if you have not yet opened the WordprocessingDocument, there are at least faster ways to duplicate, or clone, the document. I've demonstrated this in my answer on the most efficient way to clone Office Open XML documents.

Answer 2

This piece of code should copy all parts from an existing document to a new one.

using (var mainDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(@"c:\sourcedoc.docx", false))
using (var resultDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Create(@"c:\newdoc.docx",
  WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))
{
  // copy parts from source document to new document
  foreach (var part in mainDoc.Parts)
    resultDoc.AddPart(part.OpenXmlPart, part.RelationshipId);
  // perform replacements in resultDoc.MainDocumentPart
  // ...
}