1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for managing data associated with computer-generated documents, comprising: storing structured data items that are associated with a document in a data store that is maintained separately from the document; and exposing an application programming interface (API) to data consumers for allowing programmatic access to the structured data item by the data consumers; wherein the API provides the ability to access the structured data items within the data store while the document is open and when the document is closed.