Introduction to Excel s XML Features

Introduction to Excel's XML Features

The first thing to note about the XML features described in this chapter is that most of them are available only in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and the stand-alone Microsoft Office Excel 2003. If you work with other Office editionssuch as Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003, or Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003the XML features described in this chapter are not available.

Many of the XML features of Excel are accessed via Excel's XML Source task pane. To bring up the XML Source task pane, if it is not already displayed, choose Task Pane from Excel's View menu. The task pane has a drop-down list from which XML Source can be selected, as shown in Figure 21.1.

Figure 21.1. Selecting XML Source from the task pane drop-down list.

An alternative way of accessing the XML Source task pane is by using the XML submenu of the Data menu. The XML submenu has an XML Source command that will show the XML Source task pane. Figure 21.2 shows the XML submenu. This chapter examines many of the commands in the XML submenu.

Figure 21.2. Choosing Data > XML > XML Source.

After you have made the XML Source task pane visible using one of these two methods, the XML Source task pane will appear, as shown in Figure 21.3.

Figure 21.3. The XML Source task pane.

The XML Source task pane refers to something called an XML map. An XML map is a mapping from an XML schema to cells and/or lists in the workbook. Before you create an XML map, you must have an XML schema to work with. The following section examines how to create an XML schema using Visual Studio 2005.