Remove a document part from a package
This topic shows how to use the classes in the Open XML SDK for Office to remove a document part (file) from a Wordprocessing document programmatically.
Packages and Document Parts
An Open XML document is stored as a package, whose format is defined by ISO/IEC 29500. The package can have multiple parts with relationships between them. The relationship between parts controls the category of the document. A document can be defined as a word-processing document if its package-relationship item contains a relationship to a main document part. If its package-relationship item contains a relationship to a presentation part it can be defined as a presentation document. If its package-relationship item contains a relationship to a workbook part, it is defined as a spreadsheet document. In this how-to topic, you will use a word-processing document package.
Getting a WordprocessingDocument Object
The code example starts with opening a package file by passing a file
name as an argument to one of the overloaded Open methods of the
WordprocessingDocument
that takes a string and a Boolean value that specifies whether the file
should be opened in read/write mode or not. In this case, the Boolean
value is true
specifying that the file
should be opened in read/write mode.
using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, true))
With v3.0.0+ the Close() method
has been removed in favor of relying on the using statement.
It ensures that the Dispose() method is automatically called
when the closing brace is reached. The block that follows the using
statement establishes a scope for the object that is created or named in
the using statement. Because the WordprocessingDocument class in the Open XML SDK
automatically saves and closes the object as part of its IDisposable implementation, and because
Dispose() is automatically called when you
exit the block, you do not have to explicitly call Save() or
Dispose() as long as you use a using
statement.
Structure of a WordProcessingML Document
The basic document structure of a WordProcessingML
document consists of the document
and body
elements, followed by one or more block level elements such as p
, which represents a paragraph. A paragraph contains one or more r
elements. The r
stands for run, which is a region of text with a common set of properties, such as formatting. A run contains one or more t
elements. The t
element contains a range of text. The following code example shows the WordprocessingML
markup for a document that contains the text "Example text."
<w:document xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main">
<w:body>
<w:p>
<w:r>
<w:t>Example text.</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
</w:body>
</w:document>
Using the Open XML SDK, you can create document structure and content using strongly-typed classes that correspond to WordprocessingML
elements. You will find these classes in the namespace. The following table lists the class names of the classes that correspond to the document
, body
, p
, r
, and t
elements.
WordprocessingML Element | Open XML SDK Class | Description |
---|---|---|
<document/> |
Document | The root element for the main document part. |
<body/> |
Body | The container for the block level structures such as paragraphs, tables, annotations and others specified in the ISO/IEC 29500 specification. |
<p/> |
Paragraph | A paragraph. |
<r/> |
Run | A run. |
<t/> |
Text | A range of text. |
For more information about the overall structure of the parts and elements of a WordprocessingML document, see Structure of a WordprocessingML document.
Settings Element
The following text from the ISO/IEC 29500 specification
introduces the settings element in a PresentationML
package.
This element specifies the settings that are applied to a WordprocessingML document. This element is the root element of the Document Settings part in a WordprocessingML document.
Example: Consider the following WordprocessingML fragment for the settings part of a document:
<w:settings>
<w:defaultTabStop w:val="720" />
<w:characterSpacingControl w:val="dontCompress" />
</w:settings>
The settings element contains all of the settings for this document. In this case, the two settings applied are automatic tab stop increments of 0.5" using the defaultTabStop element, and no character level white space compression using the characterSpacingControl element.
© ISO/IEC 29500: 2016
How the Sample Code Works
After you have opened the document, in the using
statement, as a WordprocessingDocument object, you create a
reference to the DocumentSettingsPart
part.
You can then check if that part exists, if so, delete that part from the
package. In this instance, the settings.xml
part is removed from the package.
MainDocumentPart? mainPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart;
if (mainPart is not null && mainPart.DocumentSettingsPart is not null)
{
mainPart.DeletePart(mainPart.DocumentSettingsPart);
}
Sample Code
Following is the complete code example in both C# and Visual Basic.
// To remove a document part from a package.
static void RemovePart(string document)
{
using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, true))
{
MainDocumentPart? mainPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart;
if (mainPart is not null && mainPart.DocumentSettingsPart is not null)
{
mainPart.DeletePart(mainPart.DocumentSettingsPart);
}
}
}