Benefits of the OpenDoPE approach

OpenDoPE offers a number of compelling benefits.

Benefits to template authors

 use all features of Word in your documents without restriction

 output documents are full fidelity

 reduced training (author in familiar Microsoft Word environment)

 no need to convert source documents

 no vendor lock-in (beyond commitment to docx format)

 document assembly data is all contained in the docx; no additional files are required

Benefits to document producers

As above, plus:

 option of Word- or web browser interface

 change to data or Word document automatically updates the other (the data binding means Word does this automatically)

 PDF and HTML formats from the full fidelity Word document

Benefits to developers / IT department

 reference software available for processing template documents

 utilize your skills to customise beyond limitations of published APIs

 file format is ISO standard Open XML (docx); already used in your organization

 zero migration/conversion costs

 minimise vendor lock-in

 no need to develop/maintain authoring enviroment (this is available as a thin layer on top of Microsoft Word)

 flexible deployment options

 utilize existing tools for manipulating docx

Limitations?

 best suited for organizations whose authors use Word (as opposed to OpenOffice, Google Docs etc)

 docx format is Word 2003 or later

 you can't use Word 2003 or Word for Mac for authoring (though there are potentially other ways to author on the Mac)