MS has resisted the idea of 'opening' its schema specs for Office and, in fact, the new Office is less about Office than it is about repenetrating the server market. As we might recall, they were doing well at that until, well, a few technically important things like system security were ignored. New versions of Office are more about leveraging Sharepoint and about moving to a software system based on a subscription pricing scheme (kind of like the Holy Grail for developers who need revenue streams). Most of what you'll find regarding Office XML schema mods regards working with and customizing Sharepoint services with .Net (a 'bet' that has been slow to pay off). For instance: http://weblog.vb-tech.com/ There is a single site which attempts to treat the complexities of Word's schema in a way which would allow you to think about defining modifications to the schema: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/02/02/523469.aspx But close study of the page reveals you're not likely to modify the schema in a dramatically useful way unless you work exclusively within the host application (which kills one of the dozens of possible definitions of 'open' in the computing world) or VSTO. It looks to me like it's just as closed as ever...but more complicated to work with than when you used VBA and the application object model. I'm not normally into banging on Microsoft for this or that strategy. They tend to make bolder moves than I do and they do that well. I am resistant to unnecessary or unproductive change and I don't *yet* see that using XML is going to achieve what the market wished XML could do for Office applications. Greg Steve Fredette wrote: >From: "Dian D. Chapman" <dian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > >>You will probably understand this more when you start trying to figure out >>how to customize Office 2007. >> >> > > If it follows XML rules, then any schema will do ;-) > > Or are we going to be forced to follow MS's schemas? If so, are these >always called from MS site, or are they installed on the HD? Then again, >maybe you can't answer that right now ;-) If they are installed to the HD, >I'll have no problem with Office '07, but from they did with server '03 and >the COSYS replacement for CDONTS, I'm not a "secure" camper.. > >Cordially, >Steven Fredette >President http://www.prowebsites.net >Indianapolis, Indiana. USA (-5 GMT/UT) >"For Your Internet Wants and Needs" Since 1997 > > > ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************