w:alias (Structured Document Tag Display Name)

Specifies a friendly display name for a structured document tag, shown in the SDT's tooltip and in the developer panel.

Parent elements

w:sdtPr

Description

w:alias provides a human-readable label for a structured document tag (SDT). This name is shown as a tooltip when the user hovers over the SDT in editing mode and is displayed in the Developer tab’s panel. It does not affect processing or binding.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.5.2.1.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:val`	`xsd:string`	Any string	The display name of the SDT.

Examples

<w:sdt>
  <w:sdtPr>
    <w:alias w:val="Customer Name"/>
    <w:tag w:val="customerName"/>
    <w:richText/>
  </w:sdtPr>
  <w:sdtContent>
    <w:r><w:t>Acme Corp.</w:t></w:r>
  </w:sdtContent>
</w:sdt>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var sdtPr = new SdtProperties(
    new SdtAlias { Val = "Customer Name" },
    new Tag { Val = "customerName" },
    new SdtContentText()    // w:richText
);

Notes

w:alias is the tooltip visible in Word’s authoring mode; it corresponds to the “Title” field in the Content Control Properties dialog.
Not to be confused with w:tag, which is a programmatic identifier.