Turning a Document into a Smart Document [Office 2003 SDK Documentation]

After you finalize the components that make up your smart document, the final step is to attach these components to the document for testing and deployment. You do this by attaching a schema and an XML expansion pack to a regular document, which turns it into a smart document.

When you attach a schema and an XML expansion pack to a document, information about the schema and the XML expansion pack is written to the document. This information links the document to the location where the XML expansion pack and additional smart document components are stored. This allows the user to install or update the particular XML expansion pack that should be loaded when the smart document is opened.

After you attach an XML expansion pack, any Microsoft Office 2003 user who receives the document will be prompted to install the components needed to enable all smart document functionality. This is done through the XML expansion pack manifest file. For details on how the XML expansion pack manifest file enables zero-touch deployment and updating of smart documents, see Deploying Smart Documents.

The following diagram illustrates how an XML expansion pack is attached to a Microsoft Office 2003 document, turning it into a smart document.