How do I unlock a content control using the OpenXML SDK in a Word 2010 document?

ms-word, openxml, openxml-sdk

Solution

The openxml SDK provides the `Lock` class and the `LockingValues` enumeration for programmatically setting the options:

- Content control cannot be deleted and

- Contents cannot be edited

So, to set those two options to "false" (`LockingValues.Unlocked`), search for all `SdtElement` elements in the document and set the `Val` property to `LockingValues.Unlocked`.

The code below shows an example:

static void UnlockAllSdtContentElements()
{
  using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc =
    WordprocessingDocument.Open(@"c:\temp\myword.docx", true))
  {        
    IEnumerable<SdtElement> elements = 
      wordDoc.MainDocumentPart.Document.Descendants<SdtElement>();

    foreach (SdtElement elem in elements)
    {
      if (elem.SdtProperties != null)
      {
        Lock l = elem.SdtProperties.ChildElements.First<Lock>();

        if (l == null)
        {              
          continue;
        }

        if (l.Val == LockingValues.SdtContentLocked)
        {
          Console.Out.WriteLine("Unlock content element...");
          l.Val = LockingValues.Unlocked;
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
  UnlockAllSdtContentElements();
}

Problem

Original source