Smart documents are documents that are programmed to give you help as you use them. Several types of documents, such as forms and templates, work well as smart documents.
Smart documents are especially effective when used throughout a process. For example, your company may have a process for filling out annual employee review forms, and you may already use a Microsoft Word template for this purpose. If that template is turned into a smart document, it can be connected to a database that automatically fills in some of the required information, such as your name, employee number, manager's name, and so on. When you complete the form, the smart document can display a button that allows you to send it on to the next step in the process. Because the smart document knows who your manager is, it can automatically route itself to that person. And, no matter who has it, the smart document knows where it is in the review process and what needs to happen next.
Smart documents can help you reuse content. For example, attorneys can use existing boilerplate when writing contracts, and journalists can insert bylines and other commonly used text.
Smart documents can make it easier to share information. They can interact with a variety of databases and use Microsoft BizTalk Server for tracking workflow. They can also interact with other Microsoft Office applications. For example, you can use smart documents to send e-mail messages through Microsoft Outlook, all without leaving the document or starting Outlook.
Smart documents are created and distributed by developers and Information Technology (IT) professionals. You can tell whether your Word document is a smart document by seeing whether an XML expansion pack is attached to it (Tools menu, Templates and Add-Ins command, XML Expansion Packs tab).