Create New Word Document with Open XML

Introduction#

The OpenXML document markup standard is an XML based format which enables solutions on many software platforms and operating systems.

Hello World

First, create a new console project using Visual Studio and add the following .dlls to your project:

DocumentFormat.OpenXml
WindowsBase

Next, compile and execute the following code:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Create a Wordprocessing document. 
    using ( WordprocessingDocument package = WordprocessingDocument.Create("HelloWorld.docx", WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))
    {
        // Add a new main document part. 
        package.AddMainDocumentPart();

        // Create the Document DOM. 
        package.MainDocumentPart.Document =
            new Document(
                new Body(
                    new Paragraph(
                        new Run(
                            new Text("Hello World!")))));

        // Save changes to the main document part. 
        package.MainDocumentPart.Document.Save();
    }
}

Under your \bin\Debug folder you should have your first WordprocessingML document:

The text that we added in the above example is stored under the main document part. Inside the main document part there is the document element which allows a child element body to store the text which makes our document. There are two main groups of content for the document body, block level (paragraphs and tables) and inline content (runs and text). The block level content provides the main structure and contains inline content. To understand the example above, we first need to understand the text hierarchy in WordprocessingML. A paragraph is split into different runs. A run is the lowest level element to which formatting can be applied. The run is split up again into various text elements.