Microsoft Office 2003 Edition XML Schema References Overview

XML Schema is a standard recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). An XML schema defines the set of tags in an XML document and the rules for applying them. Schemas define the structure and type of data that each data element in a document can contain. Anyone can create a schema to define and qualify the content for their application; Microsoft defined schemas that abide by the XML Schema 1.0 recommendation for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and InfoPath form templates. For Microsoft® Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003, you can view these schemas as alternative file formats to the well-known binary (.doc and .xls) formats. The schema for Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 defines the structure for InfoPath forms.

There are a number of schema namespaces used in the XML support for the Microsoft Office System. These namespaces provide a consistent structure for data used within Office applications and for reliable data exchanges with other applications and systems. Each namespace has a distinct purpose. The following topics serve introductions to these namespaces and provide brief descriptions of each namespace, its prefix, and its friendly name:

• Common Properties Schema Overview. The elements in these schemas are shared by Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003.
• Excel Schema Overview. The Excel 2003 XML format or schema, called SpreadsheetML, is available in all versions of Excel 2003. This format saves spreadsheet content and information about workbooks, worksheets, formulas, formatting, Microsoft Office PivotTable® dynamic views and much more. However, unlike the Word XML format, SpreadsheetML does not save all details associated with a workbook. Excel saves the SpreadsheetML file with a processing instruction at the top of the file so that when a user opens a SpreadsheetML file from Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer, Windows opens the XML file directly in Excel 2003. Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Excel 2002 also supported SpreadsheetML. Excel 2003 adds new features by using a new namespace: "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel2".
• InfoPath Schema Overview. Unlike Word and Excel, InfoPath itself does not specify a standard schema for all InfoPath forms because the information captured using an InfoPath form is saved as an XML file that is validated against the custom XML Schema Definition (XSD) which is created by the developer of an InfoPath form template. However, InfoPath does specify a standard schema for its form definition file (.xsf), which defines information about all other files and components that are used at run time when displaying and filling out an InfoPath form. These files and components include user interface customizations, XML schemas, views, business logic, event handlers, and deployment settings. When using the InfoPath design mode user interface to create a form template, InfoPath creates and manages the form definition file automatically. While you do not usually need to modify this file, you can edit the .xsf file directly to extend form functionality in some ways that are not possible using the design mode user interface.
• OneNote Schema Overview. Microsoft Office OneNote™ 2003 SP1 contains extensibility functionality that enables applications to interoperate with it in an important, fundamental way— you can now push content to OneNote that includes html, images, and ink (such as from a Tablet PC). You can even create the folder, section, or page onto which you want to place your content. The OneNote 2003 Import Schema enables you to pass OneNote an xml file describing the content you want to import.
• Project Schema Overview. Microsoft Office Project 2003 allows you to save Project files in XML format by clicking Save As on the File menu, or saved to an XML file or DOM document by using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). In Project, you can also directly open an XML file that is valid, according to the Project XML Schema. You can also open a valid XML file, DOM (Document Object Model) document, or SOAP string by using VBA.
• Research Services Schema Overview. Microsoft Office Research Services defines schemas for registration requests and responses, queries, and responses to queries. The architecture of research services is easy to understand. The developer builds a custom research service or set of services as an XML Web service or pair of Web services. This Web service corresponds to a "provider" and can process various types of searches, each of which corresponds to a "service."
• Visio Schema Overview. Microsoft Office Visio® 2003 drawing and diagramming software gives users the capability to integrate information from a database into a diagram. Diagrams saved as Visio XML files could incorporate XML data that follows a customer-defined schema and can later be mined to retrieve data from within the diagram. This enables developers to create rich Visio solutions for modeling business processes, or that associate data from any XML data source with specific shapes or diagram elements.
• Word Schema Overview. The Word 2003 XML format or schema, called WordprocessingML, is available in all versions of Word 2003. This format is an alternative file format to the well-known .doc binary format and saves all of the same information that is saved in the Word binary format. This means that if you saved a document as WordprocessingML and reopened it, Word retains every document feature. Word saves the WordprocessingML file with a processing instruction at the top of the file so that when a user opens a WordprocessingML file from Microsoft Windows Explorer or Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows opens the XML file directly in Word. Organizations or individuals can configure Word or specific templates in Word to save in the WordprocessingML format by default.