Simplify Markup

Namespace: Clippit.Word

Strip unnecessary markup from Word documents to simplify the underlying XML structure.

public static class MarkupSimplifier {
    public static WmlDocument SimplifyMarkup(
        WmlDocument doc, SimplifyMarkupSettings settings)
    {...}

    public static void SimplifyMarkup(
        WordprocessingDocument doc, SimplifyMarkupSettings settings)
    {...}
}

MarkupSimplifier removes various categories of markup that are often unnecessary for document processing, comparison, or conversion. Each category is controlled by a flag in SimplifyMarkupSettings.

An instance method is also available directly on WmlDocument:

var simplified = wmlDoc.SimplifyMarkup(settings);

SimplifyMarkupSettings

All fields are bool and default to false.

Field	Description
`AcceptRevisions`	Accept all tracked revisions before simplifying
`NormalizeXml`	Normalize the XML structure
`RemoveBookmarks`	Remove bookmark start/end elements
`RemoveComments`	Remove comments and comment references
`RemoveContentControls`	Remove structured document tags (content controls)
`RemoveEndAndFootNotes`	Remove endnote and footnote references and content
`RemoveFieldCodes`	Remove field codes, keeping field results
`RemoveGoBackBookmark`	Remove the `_GoBack` bookmark
`RemoveHyperlinks`	Remove hyperlink wrappers
`RemoveLastRenderedPageBreak`	Remove `lastRenderedPageBreak` elements
`RemoveMarkupForDocumentComparison`	Remove markup that interferes with document comparison (implies `RemoveRsidInfo`)
`RemovePermissions`	Remove permission start/end elements
`RemoveProof`	Remove proofing markup (spell check, grammar)
`RemoveRsidInfo`	Remove revision save ID attributes
`RemoveSmartTags`	Remove smart tag elements
`RemoveSoftHyphens`	Remove soft hyphen characters
`RemoveWebHidden`	Remove web-hidden paragraph marks
`ReplaceTabsWithSpaces`	Replace tab characters with spaces

Additional Methods

Method	Description
`MergeAdjacentSuperfluousRuns(XElement)`	Merge adjacent runs with identical formatting
`TransformElementToSingleCharacterRuns(XElement)`	Split runs so each contains a single character
`TransformPartToSingleCharacterRuns(OpenXmlPart)`	Apply single-character run transform to a part
`TransformToSingleCharacterRuns(WordprocessingDocument)`	Apply single-character run transform to entire document

SimplifyMarkup Sample

var wmlDoc = new WmlDocument("input.docx");

var settings = new SimplifyMarkupSettings
{
    RemoveComments = true,
    RemoveRsidInfo = true,
    RemoveProof = true,
    RemoveBookmarks = true,
    RemoveGoBackBookmark = true,
    RemoveSoftHyphens = true,
    RemoveLastRenderedPageBreak = true,
    RemoveContentControls = true,
    RemoveSmartTags = true
};

var simplified = wmlDoc.SimplifyMarkup(settings);
simplified.SaveAs("simplified.docx");

Prepare for Comparison Sample

var settings = new SimplifyMarkupSettings
{
    RemoveMarkupForDocumentComparison = true,
    AcceptRevisions = true
};

var doc1 = new WmlDocument("doc1.docx").SimplifyMarkup(settings);
var doc2 = new WmlDocument("doc2.docx").SimplifyMarkup(settings);

// Documents are now ready for structural comparison