8. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for managing markup structure and associated data in a computer-generated document, comprising: applying Extensible Markup Language (XML) elements to a document; generating an XML structure file for containing the XML elements applied to the document; generating an associated data file for storing data entered into the document; establishing a link from a plurality of the XML elements contained in the XML structure file with a corresponding data range contained in the associated data file, wherein the link is established by a mapping between a data binding tag in the document that is associated with a desired portion of the document, wherein the data binding tag has an XPath as a value; and upon launching the document, merging data contained in the data file with linked XML elements contained in the XML structure file for displaying the data contained in the data file in the document according to the XML elements applied to the document; receiving edits to a given data item displayed in the document, wherein the edits are received from a third-party data editing application which is separate from an application utilized for creating and editing the data file, wherein the third-party data application has access to only a certain number of a plurality of associated data ranges in the data file for making the edits, wherein the third-party data application does not have access to associated data ranges in the plurality of associated data ranges in the data file which do not comprise the certain number, and wherein the third-party data application does not have access to the XML elements applied to the documents which are contained in the XML structure file; passing the edits to the given data item to the data file for automatically persisting in one of the plurality of associated data ranges in the data file, wherein automatically persisting comprises initiating a live update to the one of the plurality of associated data ranges in the data file, the live update comprising automatically changing the data in the one of the plurality of associated data ranges in the data file, the changed data comprising data associated with a section of the data file; and sending data associated with the edited associated data range across a data link to the associated data range to replace the data in the one of the plurality of associated data ranges to a state prior to the edits being received for the given data item displayed in the document.
13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , whereby one or more XML elements contained in the XML structure file are not linked to associated data ranges contained in the data file, the one or more non-linked XML elements being applied for presentation and layout of the document.