I have automated word document creation from templates using the "Microsoft Word 12.0 Object Library" in my project, but it is unacceptably slow. I'm looking for alternatives: I need to create a document from a template, run some macros and insert text and tables into various bookmark ranges (some text formatting options would be nice too). I only need the final document to be compatible with Word2007, but would prefer a solution easily available from .NET (other recommendations are appreciated too)...
Please advise.
Have a look at Microsoft's Office OpenXML SDK. It allows you to create Word 2007 (.docx) documents programmatically without the Office applications.
To use it you will need to be familiar with the OpenXML file format. A good starting point also providing examples are the blogs of Brian Jones and Erika Ehrli.
This sample on CodeProject might also be a good start: Creation of a Word 2007 document using the Open XML Format SDK.
I also recommend you to have a look at the DocumentReflector, a tool included within the SDK, that creates the code to produce a certain Word document based on an existing document.