What is Annotation in regards to Document Format Open Xml?

Question

I search this and get only one following line on msdn website - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/documentformat.openxml.inkml.annotation_members(v=office.14).aspx without any explanation:-

Get the first annotation object of the specified type from this PartContainer

Can someone please explain?

Answer 1

I have come to know about what this Annotation is from the following article:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericwhite/archive/2009/04/27/the-use-of-extension-methods-to-manage-open-xml-document-changes-in-powertools-for-open-xml.aspx

Annotations are simply objects that can be attached to other objects.

Answer 2

Check out the extract from Open XML Specification:

17.13 Annotations

Within a WordprocessingML document, annotations refer to various types of supplementary markup which can be stored inside or around a region of text within the document's contents. [Example: The types of supplementary information stored within a document can include: comments, revisions, spelling and/or grammatical errors, bookmark information and optional editing permissions. end example]

Within a document's contents, annotations are stored in one of three different methods:

• Inline
• Cross Structure
• Properties

These three forms are needed in order to maintain compatibility with both the legacy annotations functionality of current word processing applications and the requirements of an XML-based format (i.e. wellformedness of the resulting XML markup). These three forms are referenced within the individual annotation types described in the following sub clauses.

The whole section of 17.13 deals with Annotations and can be read from - http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm