Where does ContentElement live in the IronWord API?

ContentElement is an abstract class in the IronWord.Models.Abstract namespace, shipped in IronWord.dll. It derives from System.Object and is the base for document nodes such as Break, Chart, Image, Shape, TextContent, ParentElement, and TextContentElement.

How do you remove or replace an element in a Word document in C#?

Every element inherits Remove and Replace from ContentElement. Call Remove to detach a node from its parent, or Replace to swap in a new child at the same position. Use Clone to copy an element before placing it elsewhere.

What is the difference between ContentElement and ParentElement?

ContentElement is the base every document node shares. ParentElement extends it for nodes that hold children, adding Children, AddChild, and related members. A plain ContentElement such as Break or Image carries no child collection.

Class ContentElement

Represents a base class for all content elements in the content model.

Inheritance

System.Object

ContentElement

Implements

IronSoftware.Abstractions.Word.IWordDocumentObject

IronSoftware.Abstractions.IDocumentObject

System.ICloneable

Namespace: IronWord.Models.Abstract

Assembly: IronWord.dll

Syntax

public abstract class ContentElement : Object

Working with any piece of content in an IronWord document through one shared shape in C# is what ContentElement makes possible. A paragraph, a run, a table, an image, a shape, and a chart are all content elements, so this base is what lets the library treat the body of a document as one uniform tree of nodes that can be located, moved, and replaced. You rarely name ContentElement directly in everyday code, but understanding it explains why elements share the same handful of positioning operations.

Concrete elements such as Break, Chart, Image, ImageContent, Shape, ShapeContent, and TextContent derive from it, and so do the parent-side bases ParentElement and TextContentElement. Once an element has been added to a document it gains a Parent, which points at the ParentElement that holds it, so a node always knows where it sits in the tree. The Status property records whether the element is new, updated, or unchanged, which the save pipeline reads when it writes the file back.

The members that matter day to day are the editing operations every element inherits. Remove detaches the element from its parent, Replace swaps in a new child at the same position, and Clone returns a deep copy you can place elsewhere. GetIndex<T> reports where the element falls among siblings of its own type. Because these live on the base, the same call works whether you hold an image, a paragraph, or a table, which keeps editing logic short.

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

WordDocument doc = new WordDocument("input.docx");
foreach (Paragraph paragraph in doc.Paragraphs)
    paragraph.Remove();
doc.Save("trimmed.docx");

The edit text how-to walks through changing element content, the remove text how-to shows detaching nodes, and the document element tutorial maps the whole tree.

Constructors

ContentElement()

Initializes a new instance of the ContentElement class.

Declaration

protected ContentElement()

Properties

Parent

Gets the parent element of this element.

Declaration

public ParentElement Parent { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
ParentElement

Status

Gets or sets the status of the element, indicating whether it is new, updated, or deleted.

Declaration

public ElementStatus Status { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
IronSoftware.Abstractions.Word.ElementStatus

Methods

Clone()

Creates a copy of the ContentElement.

Declaration

public virtual object Clone()

Returns

Type	Description
System.Object	A new instance of the Shape with all properties copied.

CloneObject()

Declaration

protected virtual object CloneObject()

Returns

Type	Description
System.Object

GetIndex<T>()

Gets the index of this element within its parent's list of child elements of the same type.

Declaration

protected int GetIndex<T>()
    where T : ContentElement

Returns

Type	Description
System.Int32	The index of this element, or 0 if it has no parent.

Type Parameters

Name	Description
T	The type of the element and its siblings.

Remove()

Declaration

public virtual void Remove()

Replace(IWordDocumentObject)

Replaces the current element with a new child element into same position within parent.

Declaration

public void Replace(IWordDocumentObject newChild)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
IronSoftware.Abstractions.Word.IWordDocumentObject	newChild	The new child element to replace the current element.

Implements

IronSoftware.Abstractions.Word.IWordDocumentObject

IronSoftware.Abstractions.IDocumentObject

System.ICloneable