Betsy Rolland
LIS 600 Independent Study
Transforming XML to Microsoft XML
Terry Brooks
Winter 2006

Transform a plain XML file to WordprocessingML using XSL

The instructions below will walk you through creating an XSL style sheet to transform plain XML into a WordprocessingML file using XSL and XPath. The resulting file can be opened directly in Microsoft Word.

Documents:

PenPals.xml
PenPals_Styles_MS.xsl
PenPals_Transformed.xml

Steps:

1. Start with an XML file, like PenPals.xml, above.


2. Create a new XSL document.


3. Your XSL file will need the following headers:
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
   xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"
   xmlns:w="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml"> <!-- WordprocessingML namespace -->
   


4. Open your XSL template tag (<xsl:template match="/">). Inside the template tag, add the following lines:
   <xsl:processing-instruction name="mso-application"> <!-- Associates this file with MS Word -->
   <xsl:text>progid="Word.Document"</xsl:text> <!-- Write this to XML doc to associate it with Word -->
   </xsl:processing-instruction>
   <w:wordDocument> <!-- Defining the Word Document -->
   <xsl:attribute name="xml:space">preserve</xsl:attribute> <!-- Preserves whitespace in the document. -->



5. Define any styles you want to use in your document. For more information, please see the tutorial on using styles in Wordprocessing ML.


6. Open your w:body tag. <w:body></w:body>


7. Within the w:body, insert your text paragraph structures, as described in the previous tutorial. Use XPath and XSL elements to produce your text. For example:
   

   <w:p>
   	<w:r>
   		<w:t>
   			Whenever we have a party, my first penpal starts with her last snackfood, <xsl:value-of select="PenPals/Person[1]/SnackFood[last()]"/>, just like my last penpal who eats <xsl:value-of select="PenPals/Person[last()]/SnackFood[last()]"/>. It's my second penpal, <xsl:value-of select="PenPals/Person[2]/FirstName"/> <xsl:text> </xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="PenPals/Person[2]/LastName"/>, who insists at starting with her first snack: <xsl:value-of select="PenPals/Person[2]/SnackFood[1]"/>.
   		</w:t>
   	</w:r>
   </w:p>

   Note:
   WordprocessingML tags in purple
   XSL and XPath in red
   Text in black


8. Close off all tags, then transform the original XML file.