What is WordML?

WordML is formally called "Wordprocessor Markup Language". Until now Microsoft Word has the main native file format called binary format (.doc extension) or Rich Text format (.rtf extension). WordML has an XML file format and is called fully compatible like these native file formats. In addition, WordML has the following features.

• Unlike the binary format, the specification of WordML is published
• You can embed user schema tags in WordML which is impossible in RTF or binary format
• XML applications can easily access WordML files using XSLT

You can build XML applications based on WordML features:

• Applying XSLT stylesheet to the user XML documents, you can easily generate WordML files. You can view or print generated WordML files using Word2003
• Applying XSLT stylesheet to WordML files, you can generate XML files. It is very useful to convert Word documents stored in the corporate information system using WordML as a middle format when doing Word to XML document conversion

Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas includes the document titled "Overview of WordprocessingML" that simply explains WordML structure and examples.