The source code for the OpenDoPE Word Add-In developer edition is available at last at http://opendope.codeplex.com/

(A binary download has been available for 10 months or so now)

OpenDoPE stands for Open Document Processing Ecosystem; its a standards based approach to document automation / document assembly.

Fundamentally, it is a set of conventions for doing document assembly using Open XML (the ISO-standard Microsoft Word docx file format), specifically, its content control databinding architecture.

Its real attraction is that it enables users to do document production without getting locked in to some vendors’ proprietary file format:- in adopting OpenDoPE, you aren’t making any commitment above and beyond continued use of the docx file format, and a conventional approach to use of its content controls.

For further details, see the OpenDoPE website.

docx4j can combine an XML data file with an OpenDoPE docx template for you; the point of the OpenDoPE Word Add-In is to help your authors with the initial step of creating OpenDoPE docx templates.

The Word Add-In is relatively straightforward; it uses VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office).  You’ll need Visual Studio (2010) and basic C# skills to modify it.

The point of releasing the source code is to make it easy for developers to contribute back fixes and enhancements (which has worked really well for docx4j), or extend the Addin to create their own specialised authoring tool.  The source code is in Mercurial, which – because of its distributed nature – should facilitate the latter especially.

The source code for the OpenDoPE Word Add-In (developer edition) is dual licensed, the primary license being GPL v2.

The Add-In is made possible because of the availability of the SharpDevelop “Avalon” and XML editor components.  Thanks guys!