title: Generating documents in multiple applications
body: <p>I need to create an application that generates a bunch of templates for Office (2000), OpenOffice.org (2.0) and InDesign. The design of the templates will be made in each application but we need a system for placeholders so that my application opens a template, replaces the placeholder with some text (like a name, address, phone number) and saves the document.</p>
  
  <p>What is the best way to work with these placeholders? My idea would be to define a placeholder using square brackets like [address], [phone] and then do a search and replace with content I retrieve from a database. Indesign allows to create named textboxes so I just have to insert text in the right textbox.</p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have a better idea?</p>