Rename bookmarks in a docx with DocIO

Question

Is it possible to rename the bookmarks in a Worddoc using DocIO ? I don't see a rename function for bookmarks in there.

Would it work to create a new bookmark using the same range as the existing one and after that remove old bookmark ?

Background:
We want to import Word documents (.docx) into another Document Management System (DMS). The DMS systems use bookmarks to fill in data, but DMS1 uses different names for the bookmarks than DMS2, for example 'Title' in DMS1 is being called 'docTitle' in DMS2. So, I would need to rename the bookmark 'Title' to 'docTitle' to make the docx compatible with DMS2. We have hundreds of WordDocs so I'm looking for a way to process all these worddocs and rename the bookmarks (or recreate the bookmarks at the same places in the document).

Gunter Van Damme · Answer

I think I have found a working solution. I have some issues with the original content not being copied well. But at least the bookmarks are on the same location as the previous ones.

POC code below:

private static void RecreateBookMark(WordDocument document, string oldname, string newname)

{

var bookmarkNavigator = new BookmarksNavigator(document);

try

{

bookmarkNavigator.MoveToBookmark(oldname);

//Gets the bookmark content

TextBodyPart part = bookmarkNavigator.GetBookmarkContent();

var content = ((WParagraph)part.BodyItems[0]).Text;

//Gets the paragraph

WParagraph paragraph = bookmarkNavigator.CurrentBookmarkItem.OwnerParagraph;

var oldbookmark = document.Bookmarks.FindByName(oldname);

//Remove original bookmark

bookmarkNavigator.DeleteBookmarkContent(false);

document.Bookmarks.Remove( oldbookmark );

//Create the new bookmark

paragraph.AppendBookmarkStart(newname);

paragraph.AppendText(content);

paragraph.AppendBookmarkEnd(newname);

}

catch (Exception e)

{

Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

}

oldbookmark

);                //Create the new bookmark                paragraph.AppendBookmarkStart(newname);                paragraph.AppendText(content);                paragraph.AppendBookmarkEnd(newname);            }            catch (Exception e)            {                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);            }        }

Suriya Balamurugan · Answer

Hi Gunter,

Yes. It is feasible to rename the bookmarks in a Word document using DocIO. But
we aren’t having any direct API to achieve this.

To meet your requirement, we suggest you to iterate Word document elements and
get the old bookmark start and bookmark end from the Word document. Then delete
the old bookmark and insert the new bookmark at the same place in the Word
document using DocIO.

We have prepared a sample application to rename the bookmarks by recreating the
bookmarks at the same places in the Word document as per your requirement and
it can be downloaded from the below attachment.

Note: Please find the template Word document in the “Data” folder of
above sample.

We have done the following things in the sample:
  1. Loads the template Word document.
  2. Iterates through the Word document
elements.
  3. Gets the old bookmark start and removed
it. 
  4. Creates a new bookmark start and
inserted in the same place of old bookmark start.
  5. Similarly, gets the old bookmark end
and deleted it. 
  6. Creates a new bookmark end and
inserted in the same place of old bookmark end.
  7. Saves the Word document.

Please refer our UG documentation to know more about iterating Word document
elements,
https://help.syncfusion.com/file-formats/docio/word-document/iterating-word-document-elements

Regards,
Suriya Balamurugan.

Attachment: Iteratedocumentelements_d6dca696.zip