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1. Development Tools Used

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Microsoft Word 2003

Programming Language: C#

2. Word Automation using C#:

Word Automation through C# is all about programmatically generating the Word Document using C# code. Working on Word is considered to be straightforward, but doing the same programmatically gets a little intricate. Word automation almost completely involves working with objects and reference types. Almost all of the tasks which we perform on word 2003 can be done programmatically using C# or VB. Tasks like Inserting Table of Contents, Linking documents, Mail Merge, Inserting Documents, Embedding documents, inserting pictures, watermark... etc can all be done programmatically.

3. Setting Up Work Environment:

Starting off, the first step is to include the Word dll's to the Solution. This can be done by right clicking the Reference Folder in the Solution explorer of the project and select Add Reference.

Figure 1.

Browse Through the available COM objects and Select Microsoft Office 11.0 Object Library & Microsoft Word 11.0 Object Library. This DLL has all the methods which we do to perform the automation.

Note: This dll would be present only if Microsoft Office is installed on the Machine.

Also include "using Microsoft.Office;" in the Namespaces used.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

4. Objects Used in Automation:

All the methods used Word automation is derived either from Word.Application or Word.Document class.

Let's consider that we want to create a document using the Word Application, we might end up doing the following steps,

Open Word Application. (Opening Word Application creates a new document by default, but in Automation, wee need to manually add a document)
Add a New document.
Edit the document.
Save it.

The same steps needs to be done programmatically. The Word.Application and Word.Document are used to Open Word and add a new Document to it.

4.1 Word.Application:

This represents in Word Application without any new document loaded in it. This is like the base class which is needed to create a new document. Creating a new instance of Word.Application can be visualized as below.

Figure 4.

4.2 Word.Document:

If we need to add a new document file, first we have to create an instance of the Word.Document object and then add it to the Word.Application.

//OBJECT OF MISSING "NULL VALUE"

Object oMissing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value();

//OBJECTS OF FALSE AND TRUE

Object oTrue = true;

Object oFalse = false;

//CREATING OBJECTS OF WORD AND DOCUMENT

Word.Application oWord = new Word.Application();

Word.Document oWordDoc = new Word.Document();

//MAKING THE APPLICATION VISIBLE

oWord.Visible = true;

//ADDING A NEW DOCUMENT TO THE APPLICATION

oWordDoc = oWord.Documents.Add(ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

This triggers the following operation in the Word Application

Figure 5.

Approaches to Perform Automation

We can either have a base template (.dot) file and open the base template file and work on it.
We can otherwise build a word document from scratch.

4.3 Standard Input Parameters:

Most of the methods have input parameters which are of reference type, and the values are mostly true, false or missing (null). In automation it makes sense as to why most of the input parameters are of reference types; it might be because of the fact that most of the methods a multitude of input parameters (many have more than 10 input parameters) and their value is going to be either true, false or missing in most of the cases. So instead of supplying the same input parameter ten times, we can make all the input parameters point to the location same single variable in them memory.

4.3.1 Range Object:

While we work on Word Application, if we want to type some text in the 11^th line, then we manually take the cursor and click it on the required line and then start typing. In order to do the same task, we use the Range variable in C#. The range variable of the Word.Document object represents the location of the cursor on the current document.

There are many possible ways to point to a specific location on a document. I had extensively used the Bookmarks locators as I work on Automation using a base template. In this approach, we insert Bookmarks on the base template and we programmatically locate those Bookmarks, set the range on them and insert text or documents at that specific location. There are also many other possible ways to set the range.

//SETTING THE RANGE ON THE BOOKMARK

Object oBookMarkName = "My_Inserted_Bookmark_On_Template";

Word.Range wrdRange = oWordDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref oBookMarkName).Range.Select();

4.3.2 Selection Object:

While working on word, we select a range of text by clicking and dragging the mouse pointer across contents in the document to select it. The contents can be text, formatted text, tables or any other item in the document. We programmatically represent the same by using the Selection Object derived from Word.Selection. In the previous range example, we locate a bookmark and set the range on that specific bookmark and we select it. Now the selection object represents that specific location. It's like placing the cursor on that specific bookmark location on the document. The selection across text can be done by selecting a range of text in between two ranges. Then the selected range can be copied, deleted or formatted.

4.3.3 Selecting Between Bookmarks:

//BOOK MARK FOR START OF SELECTION

Object oBookmarkStart = "BookMark__Start";

Object oRngoBookMarkStart = oWordDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref oBookmarkDesignInfoStart).Range.Start;

//BOOK MARK FOR END OF SELECTION

Object oBookmarkEnd = "BookMark__End";

Object oRngoBookMarkEnd = oWordDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref oBookmarkDesignInfoEnd).Range.Start;

//SETTING THE RANGE ON THE BOOKMARK BETWEEN TWO BOOKMARKS

Word.Range rngBKMarkSelection = oWordDoc.Range(ref oRngoBookMarkStart, ref oRngoBookMarkEnd);

//SELECTING THE TEXT

rngBKMarkSelection.Select();
rngBKMarkSelection.Delete(ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

5. Automation using a Base Template:

The base template file method is preferable as it gives us much more flexibility in performing the automation and it comes very handy for performing Mail Merge.

In the base template method, when we call the Documents.Add method of the Application object, we give the path of the .dot file.

//THE LOCATION OF THE TEMPLATE FILE ON THE MACHINE

Object oTemplatePath = "C:\\Program Files\\MyTemplate.dot";

//ADDING A NEW DOCUMENT FROM A TEMPLATE

oWordDoc = oWord.Documents.Add(ref oTemplatePath, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

Now .dot file is opened and when we save the generated document, we save it as a new file.

6. Mail Merge

Mail merge is a useful tool in scenarios where we want to randomly generate alike documents where just a few fields change. For instance in a pay slip which has a base template and just the employee name, number and pay details needs to change for each employee. Now we can have a base template which is a word file saved as Document Template file.

In the .dot file, insert a Mail Merge Field manually by placing the cursor in the required position and Insert -> Field, and in Field Names, select "MergeField", now the Mail merged field would be represented by <<FieldName>>. The template can be like

Contact Information

For further information and discussions, please contact:

Name: <<CIFLName>>

Address: <<CIAddress>>

Phone: <<CIPhW>> (Work)

<<CIPhM>> (Cell)

Fax: <<CIFax>>

Email <<CIMail>>

Now for programmatically replacing the Mail Merge fields using the code, the document by default has many fields in it. But the user entered fields comes with a prefix and suffix which can be can be used as an identifier to replace the fields.

//OBJECT OF MISSING "NULL VALUE"

Object oMissing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value();

//OBJECTS OF FALSE AND TRUE

Object oTrue = true;

Object oFalse = false;

//CREATING OBJECTS OF WORD AND DOCUMENT

Word.Application oWord = new Word.Application();

Word.Document oWordDoc = new Word.Document();

//SETTING THE VISIBILITY TO TRUE

oWord.Visible = true;

//THE LOCATION OF THE TEMPLATE FILE ON THE MACHINE

Object oTemplatePath = "C:\\Program Files\\MyTemplate.dot";

//ADDING A NEW DOCUMENT FROM A TEMPLATE

oWordDoc = oWord.Documents.Add(ref oTemplatePath, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

foreach (Word.Field myMergeField in oWordDoc.Fields)

{

iTotalFields++;

Word.Range rngFieldCode = myMergeField.Code;

String fieldText = rngFieldCode.Text;

// ONLY GETTING THE MAILMERGE FIELDS

if (fieldText.StartsWith(" MERGEFIELD"))

{

// THE TEXT COMES IN THE FORMAT OF

// MERGEFIELD MyFieldName \\* MERGEFORMAT

// THIS HAS TO BE EDITED TO GET ONLY THE FIELDNAME "MyFieldName"

Int32 endMerge = fieldText.IndexOf("\\");

Int32 fieldNameLength = fieldText.Length - endMerge;

String fieldName = fieldText.Substring(11, endMerge - 11);

// GIVES THE FIELDNAMES AS THE USER HAD ENTERED IN .dot FILE

fieldName = fieldName.Trim();

// **** FIELD REPLACEMENT IMPLEMENTATION GOES HERE ****//

// THE PROGRAMMER CAN HAVE HIS OWN IMPLEMENTATIONS HERE

if (fieldName == "MyField")

{

myMergeField.Select();

oWord.Selection.TypeText("This Text Replaces the Field in the Template");

}

There is one other method for replacing the Merge Fields which is mentioned in msdn, which uses a rather memory hungry approach. In that method a separate document is opened and it is inserted with a table which has first row as the Mail Merge Field Name and the second row as the replacement value, then the value from the table is matched with that of the original document and replacement occurs and the second document is purged.

7. Embedding a Document:

Embedding a document is done through the application by

Insert-> Object-> Create from file-> Select the File-> Display as Icon. This embeds the file in the selected location as an icon and the user can double click on the icon to open the file. The same can be done through automation.

The range supposed to set at the required place and the same has to be selected (range can be set by any of the means mentioned above). Now with the selection, the file can be embedded.

//ICON LABEL CAN BE THE NAME OF THE FILE,

//ITS THE NAME DISPLAYED BESIDES THE EMBEDDED DOCUMENT

Object oIconLabel = "File Name";

//INCASE WE NEED THE EMBEDDED DOCUMENT TO BE DISPLAYED AS A SPECIFIC ICON,

//WE NEED TO SPECIFY THE LOCATION OF THE ICON FILE

//ELSE SET IT TO oMissing VALUE

Object oIconFileName = "C:\\Document and Settings\\IconFile.ico";

//THE BOOKMARK WHERE THE FILE NEEDS TO BE EMBEDDED

Object oBookMark = "My_Custom_BookMark";

//THE LOCATION OF THE FILE

Object oFileDesignInfo = "C:\\Document and Settings\\somefile.doc";

//OTHER VARIABLES

Object oClassType = "Word.Document.8";

Object oTrue = true;

Object oFalse = false;

Object oMissing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;

//METHOD TO EMBED THE DOCUMENT

oWordDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref oBookMark).Range.InlineShapes.AddOLEObject(

ref oClassType,ref oFileDesignInfo,ref oFalse, ref oTrue, ref oIconFileName,

ref oMissing,ref oIconLabel, ref oMissing);

8. Inserting a Document File:

Contents of a Word documents can also be inserted into the current document from the application by doing the following.

Insert -> File -> Select the File. This extracts the contents from the selected file and inserts it into the current document.

In automation, we need to follow a similar approach by placing the range at the required point and selecting it and then inserting the file.

//THE LOCATION OF THE FILE

String oFilePath = "C:\\Document and Settings\\somefile.doc";

oWordDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref oBookMark).Range.InsertFile(oFilePath,ref oMissing, ref oFalse, ref oFalse, ref oFalse);

9. Including Water Marks/Pictures in the Document Background:

Including watermarks is one other important feature for any official documents as the watermark may have the company's logo, draft logo or any other picture/text. This is useful when we want a picture or some text to be present throughout the document in the background.

We insert a watermark in the application by performing the following tasks.

Format -> Background -> Printed Watermarks

The same can also be done programmatically; moreover as we manually define the values like the angle of tilt and actual location of the watermark, we have more flexibility in defining the exact location of the watermark.

9.1 Embedding Pictures in Document Header:

//EMBEDDING LOGOS IN THE DOCUMENT

//SETTING FOCUES ON THE PAGE HEADER TO EMBED THE WATERMARK

oWord.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekCurrentPageHeader;

//THE LOGO IS ASSIGNED TO A SHAPE OBJECT SO THAT WE CAN USE ALL THE

//SHAPE FORMATTING OPTIONS PRESENT FOR THE SHAPE OBJECT

Word.Shape logoCustom = null;

//THE PATH OF THE LOGO FILE TO BE EMBEDDED IN THE HEADER

String logoPath = "C:\\Document and Settings\\MyLogo.jpg";

logoCustom = oWord.Selection.HeaderFooter.Shapes.AddPicture(logoPath,

ref oFalse, ref oTrue, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

logoCustom.Select(ref oMissing);

logoCustom.Name = "CustomLogo";

logoCustom.Left = (float)Word.WdShapePosition.wdShapeLeft;

//SETTING FOCUES BACK TO DOCUMENT

oWord.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekMainDocument;

9.2 Inserting Text in the Centre of the Document as Water Mark:

//THE LOGO IS ASSIGNED TO A SHAPE OBJECT SO THAT WE CAN USE ALL THE

//SHAPE FORMATTING OPTIONS PRESENT FOR THE SHAPE OBJECT

Word.Shape logoWatermark = null;

//INCLUDING THE TEXT WATER MARK TO THE DOCUMENT

logoWatermark = oWord.Selection.HeaderFooter.Shapes.AddTextEffect(

Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoPresetTextEffect.msoTextEffect1,

"Enter The Text Here", "Arial", (float)60,

Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue,

Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse,

0, 0, ref oMissing);

logoWatermark.Select(ref oMissing);

logoWatermark.Fill.Visible = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue;

logoWatermark.Line.Visible = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse;

logoWatermark.Fill.Solid();

logoWatermark.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = (Int32)Word.WdColor.wdColorGray30;

logoWatermark.RelativeHorizontalPosition = Word.WdRelativeHorizontalPosition.wdRelativeHorizontalPositionMargin;

logoWatermark.RelativeVerticalPosition = Word.WdRelativeVerticalPosition.wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin;

logoWatermark.Left = (float)Word.WdShapePosition.wdShapeCenter;

logoWatermark.Top = (float)Word.WdShapePosition.wdShapeCenter;

logoWatermark.Height = oWord.InchesToPoints(2.4f);

logoWatermark.Width = oWord.InchesToPoints(6f);

//SETTING FOCUES BACK TO DOCUMENT

oWord.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekMainDocument;

9.3 Inserting Text in the Centre of Page, and rotating it by 90 Degrees:

//INSERTING TEXT IN THE CENTRE RIGHT, TILTED AT 90 DEGREES

Word.Shape midRightText;

midRightText = oWord.Selection.HeaderFooter.Shapes.AddTextEffect(

Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoPresetTextEffect.msoTextEffect1,

"Text Goes Here", "Arial", (float)10,

Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue,

Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse,

0, 0, ref oMissing);

//FORMATTING THE SECURITY CLASSIFICATION TEXT

midRightText.Select(ref oMissing);

midRightText.Name = "PowerPlusWaterMarkObject2";

midRightText.Fill.Visible = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue;

midRightText.Line.Visible = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse;

midRightText.Fill.Solid();

midRightText.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = (int)Word.WdColor.wdColorGray375;

//MAKING THE TEXT VERTICAL & ALIGNING

midRightText.Rotation = (float)90;

midRightText.RelativeHorizontalPosition =

Word.WdRelativeHorizontalPosition.wdRelativeHorizontalPositionMargin;

midRightText.RelativeVerticalPosition =

Word.WdRelativeVerticalPosition.wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin;

midRightText.Top = (float)Word.WdShapePosition.wdShapeCenter;

midRightText.Left = (float)480;

10. Including Page Numbers in Page Footer:

Including auto-generated page numbers in the Footer is yet another useful feature which can be simulated in the code.

//SETTING THE FOCUES ON THE PAGE FOOTER

oWord.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekCurrentPageFooter;

//ENTERING A PARAGRAPH BREAK "ENTER"

oWord.Selection.TypeParagraph();

String docNumber = "1";

String revisionNumber = "0";

//INSERTING THE PAGE NUMBERS CENTRALLY ALIGNED IN THE PAGE FOOTER

oWord.Selection.Paragraphs.Alignment = Word.WdParagraphAlignment.wdAlignParagraphLeft;

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.Font.Name = "Arial";

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.Font.Size = 8;

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("Document #: " + docNumber + " - Revision #: " + revisionNumber);

//INSERTING TAB CHARACTERS

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("\t");

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("Page ");

Object CurrentPage = Word.WdFieldType.wdFieldPage;

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.Fields.Add(oWord.Selection.Range, ref CurrentPage, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText(" of ");

Object TotalPages = Word.WdFieldType.wdFieldNumPages;

oWord.ActiveWindow.Selection.Fields.Add(oWord.Selection.Range, ref TotalPages, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

//SETTING FOCUES BACK TO DOCUMENT

oWord.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekMainDocument;

11. Basic Text Formatting Options:

11.1 Paragraph Break:

This is equivalent to hitting the enter button in the document.

//ENTERING A PARAGRAPH BREAK "ENTER"

oWord.Selection.TypeParagraph();

11.2 Text Formatting Option:

All the text formatting options available in the Word Application can also be replicated through automation.

//OTHER COMMONLY USED FORMATTING OPTIONS

oWord.Selection.Font.Bold = 1;

oWord.Selection.Font.Color = Word.WdColor.wdColorAqua;

oWord.Selection.Font.Italic = 1;

oWord.Selection.Font.Underline = Word.WdUnderline.wdUnderlineDashHeavy;

11.3 Clear Formatting:

When the Formatting is applied to a selection, then the same formatting gets carried on to the next lines, in order to clear the formatting, the next line needs to be selected and ClearFormatting() method needs to be called.

//CLEARING THE FORMATTING

oWord.Selection.ClearFormatting();

12. Table of Contents:

Table of Contents is very handy when it comes to official documents or some technical papers which span across many pages. Table of contents can be inserted and updated on the fly as the document gets built.

For the Table of Contents to get auto generated without any hassles, it is vital that the Headings, Sub-Headings and the Body text have their respective attributes set. When we work on the application, the values get set by themselves, we only need to edit if required. But while programming its mandatory that we set the values in the code in order to prevent any anomalies when the Table of Contents gets updated.

Below is an example of a document which was programmatically generated.

Figure 6.

It is apparent that the Header 2 and Header 3 and Body are formatted differently and even in the Table of Contents the Header 2 is slightly offset from the Header 1.

Open the above document and Outlining Tool bar, View -> Toolbars -> Outlining. And on moving the cursor on the Sample Header 2, we can see that the Format is Heading 2 and Outlining level is Level 2.

Figure 7.

And for Body, the Format is Normal + Arial, 10 pt and Outlining Level is Body text.

Figure 8.

The same values needs to be set programmatically for the Table of Contents to get generated.

12.1 Section Format:

For setting the Format of the Selection, select the entire text (select between bookmarks like mentioned before in Selection section) and set the value

//SETTING THE FORMAT TYPE

//SELECT THE CONTENST TO BE FORMATTED AND SET THE VALUE

Object styleHeading2 = "Heading 2";

Object styleHeading3 = "Heading 3";

oWord.Selection.Range.set_Style(ref styleHeading2);

oWord.Selection.Range.set_Style(ref styleHeading3);

12.2 Outline Level:

For setting the outline level, select the contents and set it to one of the values mentioned below

//SETTING THE OUTLINE LEVEL

//SELECT THE CONTENTS WHOSE OUTLINE LEVEL NEEDS TO BE CHANGED AND

//SET THE VALUE

oWord.Selection.Paragraphs.OutlineLevel =Word.WdOutlineLevel.wdOutlineLevel2;

oWord.Selection.Paragraphs.OutlineLevel = Word.WdOutlineLevel.wdOutlineLevel3;

oWord.Selection.Paragraphs.OutlineLevel = Word.WdOutlineLevel.wdOutlineLevelBodyText;

12.3 Inserting Table of Contents:

Once the Outline Levels & Section Style are set, the Table of Contents can be inserted programmatically and the page numbers gets populated automatically based on the Outline Levels & Section Style set by the user. (Also refer this MSDN Link)

// NAME OF THE BOOKMARK IN THE DOCUMENT (.dot Template) WHERE TABLE OF

// CONTENTS NEEDS TO BE ADDED

Object oBookmarkTOC = "Bookmark_TOC";

// SETTING THE RANGE AT THE BOOKMARK

Word.Range rngTOC = oWordDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref oBookmarkTOC).Range;

// SELECTING THE SET RANGE

rngTOC.Select();

// INCLUDING THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Object oUpperHeadingLevel = "1";

Object oLowerHeadingLevel = "3";

Object oTOCTableID = "TableOfContents";

oWordDoc.TablesOfContents.Add(rngTOC, ref oTrue, ref oUpperHeadingLevel,

ref oLowerHeadingLevel,ref oMissing, ref oTOCTableID, ref oTrue,

ref oTrue, ref oMissing, ref oTrue, ref oTrue, ref oTrue);

12.4 Updating Table of Contents:

Usually the Table of Contents is inserted in the beginning of the document generation and once all the contents are populated, the locations of the Headings and Sub Headings tend to change. If the Table of Contents is not updated, then its contents points to different pages. To overcome this hassle, the Table of Contents needs to be updated at the end of the Automation.

//UPDATING THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

oWordDoc.TablesOfContents[1].Update();

//UPDATING THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

oWordDoc.TablesOfContents[1].UpdatePageNumbers();

13. Saving/Closing & Re-Opening the File:

13.1 Saving the File:

//THE LOCATION WHERE THE FILE NEEDS TO BE SAVED

Object oSaveAsFile = (Object)"C:\\SampleDoc.doc";

oWordDoc.SaveAs(ref oSaveAsFile, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing,

ref oMissing, ref oMissing,ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing,

ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing,

ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

13.2 Closing the File:

//CLOSING THE FILE

oWordDoc.Close(ref oFalse, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

//QUITTING THE APPLICATION

oWord.Quit(ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);

13.3 Re-Opening the File:

The Open () method which we use in Word2003 dll might throw an exception if the client have another version of word installed in their machine. If the client has Word 2002, then he has to open a word file only by Open2002 () method. Open () method which comes for Word 2003 might through an exception in Word 2002 environment. And for Word 2000, there is a method called Open2000 () and Open2002 () for Office 2002 and so on. So it is wise to put the Open () in a try-catch block as mentioned below.

Figure 10.

14. Tips for Word Automation to Create New Document (Non-Base Template Approach)

(Refer to this MSDN link)

When we proceed to create a New Document without using the Base Template, the most useful entity is the inbuilt Bookmark endofdoc. It would be a build-from-scratch approach where the programmer starts of the automation by inserting his first section of contents, then setting the range to point to the endofdoc Bookmark and selecting it and inserting his contents and again selecting the endofdoc which would be pointing to the end of the document which would now be after the two sections.

Disappointed by Jasmine On June 14, 2007

I do a lot of work with Word Automation and while this is a pretty good article for someone totally unfamiliar with it, you haven't put anything that isn't already available in multiple sources on the web, including the obvious one, MSDN. I was kind of hoping for something new...

If you've done any actual work with Word Automation applications, you would know that there are some major unsolved issues with it. Your article would have more value if it had some information about those problems. It is still a good article, but you could have had something about these issues:

1. How to buffer the output so the user doesn't see the flurry of activity on-screen.

2. How to determine the version of Word that is installed on the user's machine and load the correct DLL in your application. This is a big deal for any real-world automation app, and current apps need to be able to deal with 3 versions and they are very different. What you have here will only work for Word 2003. For other versions of Word, the DLL is loaded differently (from the COM server), and the resulting object is a different type, so the code you use to work with it also has to be different.

3. It would be really nice if you explained the whole issue with redistribution of the Office the use of the Primary Interop Assemblies for .NET applications, and how to re-distribute them in your installer. That whole deal is relatively undocumented and it took me a while to figure it out.

Also, it seems like the end of this article is cut off. You just sort of stop in mid-thought... why did...

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Re: Disappointed by Awan On June 15, 2007

It is really a good article for the beginners of Word Automation programming. It gets you started right away by providing all basic information in one place. I think it would be great if you write an article about the issues you have mentioned, atleast about the ones which you said "That whole deal is relatively undocumented and it took me a while to figure it out."

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Re: Disappointed by Satish On May 4, 2009

Hi,

I work on VS2005, My requirement is to embed an Excel object on a word document programatically. Could you help me in getting the solution. I work on C#2.0

Satish

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Re: Disappointed by Andy On July 2, 2009

For a beginner in this area, like myself this is very useful. While there are the obvious MSDN links having everything in a single location is very good.

You say you are disappointed and reference some missing scenarios, looks like you have experience in these areas.
Would you share these then rather than just point out what is missing?

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Excellent by pankaj On July 8, 2007

This article is excellent for use by the programmers involved into Word Automation. The clarity and step-by-step approach is remarkable. The comments are well written for an easy and quick understanding. thanks

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I need help by Bhargava On July 15, 2007

Is there any way that, clicking on the "Save" button of MS Word, the document is saved in a database? Could you please help me with this issue? Is it possible?

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Re: I need help by Noel On July 16, 2007

Hi there,

I am running into the problems you mentioned in your article.

I also want to get a word document from my database and display it in word. I want to complete this task without creating a physical file on the local p.c. so I do not have any issues with word locking my files. I then want to save the word document back to my database.

Any info would be great.

Thanks Noel.

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TableOfContents from C# 2005 Dataset by Anitha On October 30, 2007

I want to create TableOfContents in a Word template programmatically in C# from the dataset. I am getting TOCText, StyleName and PageNumber from the Dataset.

I am concerned about alignment and indentation for each TOC entry as per the TOC StyleName as below.

TableOfContents Sample

My startup Code is as below:::::

try
{
conn.Open();
cmd.Connection = conn;
sql = "select TocText,PAGENUMBER, STYLENAME, TocTableID from Reg_TableofContents order by TocTableID ";
cmd.CommandText = sql;
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
OracleDataAdapter da = new OracleDataAdapter(cmd);
da.Fill(ds);

if (ds.Tables[0].Rows.Count > 0)
{
//Reading thru each TOC content from the database
foreach (DataRow dRow in ds.Tables[0].Rows)
{

         object missing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;
         Object oTrue = true;
        Object oFalse = false;

ApplicationClass myApp = new ApplicationClass();
Document myDoc = new Document();

object filename = "C:/TOC_Template.doc";
myDoc = myApp.Documents.Open (ref filename, ref missing, ref oFalse, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

//This is where i am looking for help

object fileSaveName = "C:/myTOC.doc";
myDoc.SaveAs(ref fileSaveName, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

}
}}

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks Anitha

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Change icon by Shashi On October 19, 2007

How do i change the icon of an embedded object?

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Good Article by faheem On October 26, 2007

It is a very good article really help me a lot. thanks for writing it and keep writing good articles

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Good Article by faheem On October 26, 2007

It is a very good article really help me a lot. thanks for writing it and keep writing good articles

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How about this with VISTA by chanandrew99 On January 16, 2008

I tried something similar and it works fine for me until I tried to use the app in VISTA. It gives me the following error: QueryInterface for interface Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word._Application failed. Anybody has any idea?

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challenge by Serdar Osman On February 6, 2008

does anybody know how to get the first page of a word document and convert/save it as an image? Thanks a lot

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Excellent article!!! by Sanjith On September 17, 2008

The article helps us do word automation from asp.net in a very simple and systematic way. But is there any way we can deploy this application on a server, without having to install ms-office on the server?

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Excellent article!!! by Sanjith On September 17, 2008

This illustrates a very simple and easy to follow procedure for word automation from ASP.net. But is there any way we can deploy such an application (for public use) without having to install ms-word on the server?

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forget messy automation by Vitalii On December 23, 2008

mostly people need just to generate documents from predifened templates. for this purpose aspose.words (aspose.com) is very good solution. another great (and FREE) solution is invoke docx lib ( http://invoke.co.nz/products/docx.aspx )

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Plz add the code for page indexing by sam On January 23, 2009

The explanation is awesome but can u also add the code for word document page indexing?or anyone having idea how to manage indexing in word using C#

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How to get and insert text with formatting by Kiran Chand On March 23, 2009

Please do let me know how to get the text with formatting and how to insert text with formatting

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How to get and insert text with formatting by Kiran Chand On March 23, 2009

Please do let me know how to get the text with formatting and how to insert text with formatting

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How to add blank page in word document by Jignesh On May 21, 2009

Hello

I have created word document in C#.Net but how i will add blank page in that word document

Please give me reply

Thanks & Regards
Jignesh Patel

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*** Unable to answer your queries *** by Amrish Deep On July 15, 2009

All,
Thanks for your comments and I am happy that a few people were benefited from my article. I see many questions but I am unable to help you guys as I have changed my career and taken up my Masters in control systems and I have long forgotten the word automation and other recent trends in it.

Cheers,
Amrish

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html to doc by Pradip On August 23, 2009

how can i convert text with html tag to formatted word document??

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Good Article - code needed some tweeking by John On August 26, 2009

I liked this article. I've done shed loads of word development in vba, quite a bit of excel in vb6 and recently excel using .net c#. So I'm not exactly a beginner, but I still found this article to be very useful.

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