We have Word 2003 and an application that stores/rebuilds a Word document
as/from a bunch of xml topics stored in a DB. Each topic starts with a H1,
H2, or H3 heading. Each topic is automatically assigned a unique ID and when
a topic is pulled back into Word from the DB, its ID is automatically
inserted as a bookmark in the topic title. This is not ideal because the end
user can easily and accidentally delete the bookmark thus preventing the
topic from being saved back to the DB in the right place. Being Word 2003, we
can protect the heading from editing, but this is too radical because
headings do need to be modified.

What we need is somewhere in the Word ML where we can insert a topic ID that
is in a hidden and non-editable part of the topic. Any suggestions?

Hi Steve-

Not sure this is the solution, but it may point in the right direction.

It sounds like the Bookmarks are being created by a procedure that is simply
placing the insertion point & defining the Bookmark... so the bookmark looks
like this;

Here Is][My Heading¶

If I understand the problem, that makes it too easy to delete the bookmark
by simply replacing text in the heading.

Can the procedure be rewritten to create the bookmarks by selecting the
_entire heading_ rather than just at an insertion point? Such as;

[Here Is My Heading¶]

If so, the bookmark will be retained if the text at that location is revised
or completely replaced as long as the user doesn't select & delete the
bookmarked heading first. If they select the entire heading & just type the
replacement the bookmark will remain.

Regards |:)

"SteveP" wrote:

We have Word 2003 and an application that stores/rebuilds a Word document
as/from a bunch of xml topics stored in a DB. Each topic starts with a H1,
H2, or H3 heading. Each topic is automatically assigned a unique ID and when
a topic is pulled back into Word from the DB, its ID is automatically
inserted as a bookmark in the topic title. This is not ideal because the end
user can easily and accidentally delete the bookmark thus preventing the
topic from being saved back to the DB in the right place. Being Word 2003, we
can protect the heading from editing, but this is too radical because
headings do need to be modified.

What we need is somewhere in the Word ML where we can insert a topic ID that
is in a hidden and non-editable part of the topic. Any suggestions?