Open XML at TechEd 2010

Open XML was a big part of my first session at TechEd 2010 called, "Office 2010: Developing the Next Wave of Productivity Solutions". The thing that gets the biggest reaction is the Open XML SDK 2.0 "Productivity Tool"-- especially the ability to reflect over an Office document to produce C# code that will produce the target document. Here's the scenario: I have a Word document (Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint deck) that a user produced manually. I want to be able to produce that same document via C# code. To do this, you point the Productivity Tool at the doc and then choose Reflect Code menu in the tool. In the pane on the right will appear the full C# code you need to produce the doc.

From there, you can paste the code into a fresh Visual Studio project (say a commandline project). You can press F5 and see the doc get produced. From there, you can alter the C# code to suit the needs of your specific business solution. Zeyad and Brian has blogged extensively about this tool and the SDK. 

Attending my session was Mike Huguet, a consultant and trainer with SparkHound. He does a ton with Open XML, and I chatted with him for 2 minutes on video which you can see below. Apologies that my voice sounds a bit thrashed, and it was noisy on the expo floor. But, you can still hear how Open XML is being used by customers as Mike describes it.

Discussing Open XML

Rock Thought of the Day: Check out LCD Soundsystem "All I Want" from their album This is Happening. Also, got get The Dead Weather's "Die By The Drop". Jack White is starting getting very close to making my list of top rock artists of all time. He is endlessly interesting, compelling, suprising. "I'm going to take you for worse or better"

Rock On