Mapped Content Controls – Microsoft Word Help, Tips and Tutorials @ The Anchorage

DISCLAIMER/TERMS OF USE

The information, illustrations and code contained in my "Microsoft Word Tips" are provided free and without risk or obligation.

However, the work is mine. If you use it for commercial purposes or benefit from my efforts through income earned or time saved then a donation, however small, will help to ensure the continued availability of this resource.

If you would like to donate, please use the appropriate donate button to access PayPal. Thank you!

The purpose of this Microsoft Word Tips & Microsoft Word Help page is to provide an introduction to mapped content controls and their usefulness in creating a rich document user experience.

My Repeating Data Word Help & Tips page describes several methods that enable a document user to type data in one place and have it repeated (or populated) in one or more other places in the document. One of the most powerful and versatile methods is the Content Control introduced in Word 2007. The key to this power and versatility is the content controls ability to be mapped (or bound) to an XML data node stored in a document customXMLPart.

The designers of Word 2007 obviously saw the benefit of this method because they were nice enough to incorporate fifteen built-in, mapped controls into every new document. These controls correspond to the fifteen built-in "document properties" from previous versions of Word. In fact they are still called "document properties."

To view and use one of these controls you simply click the Insert tab>QuickParts>Document Property and select the property you want to insert. In the example shown below, I inserted the "Author" document property.

You can confirm that this "document property" is displayed to the user in a Content Control by selecting the the control then clicking the Developer Tab>Controls>Properties. The dialog displayed shows the control properties including the title "Author."

Each of the fifteen (15) built-in document properties are mapped to a built-in customXMLPart of the document Office Open XML File format. As explained in "Repeating Data" if you copy and paste one of the controls to a different location in the document then the copy is also mapped to the same XML data. Changes made to in the XML data, the original control, or to one or more copies are automatically reflected in all the other mapped locations.

For many users, as alternate titles can be assigned to the controls as explained in "Repeating Data," these fifteen controls may meet every need. Where it won't, "Repeating Data" provides several workarounds including the basic procedure to create and map your own controls.

Returning visitors to this page may find the content seriously diminished. Once posted here was some relatively complex VBA procedures for mapping a small collection of content controls and a rudimentary add-in for performing that process. In the winter of 2010/11 longtime friend and Word MVP Graham Mayor and I collaborated and developed an extensive Word template add-in project in which I included the ability to quickly create and manage mapped content controls in your documents. Your can review and download the add-in here: Mayor & Maxey "Content Control, Variable, Bookmark and Document Property Tools".

That's it! I hope you have found this tips page useful and informative.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web gregmaxey.mvps.org

Mapped Content Controls(A Microsoft Word Help & Tip page by Gregory K. Maxey)

Mapped Content Controls
(A Microsoft Word Help & Tip page by Gregory K. Maxey)