Storing Hidden XML In Word

This is a followup post to hosting hidden XML with in a Word document. Thanks to Cyril Mathey for sharing his C# code with us in the Newsgroups.

public static void SetDocumentVariable(MSWord.Document wordDoc, string variableName, string variableValue) {
  object varNameRef = variableName;
  MSWord.Variable var = wordDoc.Variables.get_Item(ref varNameRef);
  if (var != null) {
    var.Value = variableValue;
  } else {
    object varValueRef = variableValue;
    wordDoc.Variables.Add(variableName, ref varValueRef);
  }
}

public static string GetDocumentVariable(MSWord.Document wordDoc, string varName) {

  object varNameRef = varName;

  MSWord.Variable var = wordDoc.Variables.get_Item(ref varNameRef);

  // If variable does not exist, an invalid Variable object is returned, not null.

  // Trying to access a property of the returned object throws a COMException.

  if (var != null)

    try { return var.Value; } catch { }

  return null;

}