Microsoft Word is the number 1 productivity application in the world. There are an estimated 100 million Word users. This book is for those advanced users of Word 2003 who are looking to automate the task of preparing documents and programmers who are unfamiliar with document automation and the Word object model. The book is broken into three sections: (1) basic Word 2003 automation, (2) automation using VBA, and (3) automation using XML, XSLT, and Smart Documents. There are several small projects throughout the book to reinforce basic concepts. In addition, a large project is followed throughout the book to document how the functionality of a base template can be enhanced with each additional technique. The first section focuses on how to automate documents with a minimum of programming by using Word's native functionality. Most Word users are familiar with only a fraction of the available functionality. These chapters acquaint the reader with time saving advice and productivity enhancing tips and tricks. The second section focuses on using VBA to create document automation solutions. VBA is the programming language behind the Office 2003 suite of applications. Readers can quickly get up to speed on macro programming basics, as well as working with databases, Among the topics covered are recording macros, creating automated templates, formatting and manipulating files using Word, and building documents dynamically. The third section of the book offers an introduction to the new XML features of Word 2003. These chapters concentrate on topics such as XML markup, how to use an XSD schema with Word, how to transform XML using WordML and XSLT, XPath, Smart Documents, and web services technologies. In addition, the base example is extended to utilise the new functionality.