You should be able to edit an RDL created by the OfficeWriter Designer in Visual Studio. However, you should also have started the entire process in Visual Studio, and its not clear from your description that you did so. This tutorial in the documentation explains the workflow of creating a Word report from an RDL created in Visual Studio. The only thing missing from that tutorial is the new feature, introduced in version 8.6.0, that allows you to import an existing Word document into a report. Here are the steps:
- Create an RDL file in Visual Studio with all your queries
- Open the RDL file in the OfficeWriter Designer toolbar in Word
- Import your existing Word document
- Insert merge fields and set repeat regions as desired from the Designer
- Make any other formatting changes as desired and save the RDL in the Designer (to disk or to the Report Server)
If you need to modify the queries after the initial report has been created with the OfficeWriter Designer, you should be able to edit the RDL in Visual Studio and the OfficeWriter-specific information should be preserved.
Note: I work for SoftArtisans