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Gios WORD .NET Library (using RTF specification)

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8 Aug 2005LGPL31 min read 361.4K   4.5K   149   110
A .NET library for generating Word documents (.DOC) using the RTF (Rich Text Format) specification.

This is the output of "Example 1", included in the library.

Introduction

The Gios WORD .NET is the second thing that a good C# developer needs to deploy in his business projects... The first one?!? You probably know it is the Gios PDF .NET library!

So, that's why I decided to develop this library: after the need for generating PDFs, you will need the same for WORDs!

Gios WORD .NET supports:

  • Tables with rows and columns span.
  • Images
  • Header and Footer
  • Line indent - paragraph
  • Custom Control Words (See the Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification for this implementation.)
  • Output to a generic System.IO.Stream object.

Background

Building a library for exporting documents in the Rich Text Format is quite easier than for PDFs. In fact, the Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.8 shows how simple it is to generate a word document with all the well known features. I used the version 1.5 (which is fully compatible with WORD 97).

Using the code

The library is very simple to be used! The first thing you need to do is instantiating a new WordDocument:

C#
WordDocument myWordDocument=
    new WordDocument(WordDocumentFormat.Letter_8_5x11);

and with the WordDocument object you can start with the description of the document. It's like an automation. For example, if you want to set the font, you can write:

C#
myWordDocument.SetFont(new Font("Comic Sans MS",
                                60,FontStyle.Bold));
myWordDocument.SetForegroundColor(Color.Red);
myWordDocument.SetFontBackgroundColor(Color.Yellow);

And now we set some alignment:

C#
myWordDocument.SetTextAlign(WordTextAlign.Center);

To write a text... You can imagine:

C#
myWordDocument.Write("Hello World!");

And, in the end, you output the document!

C#
myWordDocument.SaveToFile("HelloWorld.doc");

And this is the result:

Remember, you can also output the WORD Document to a generic stream. These are the lines for a web response:

C#
Response.ClearHeaders();
Response.AppendHeader("Content-disposition",
   "attachment;filename=HelloWorld.doc");
Response.ContentType="application/msword"; 
myPdfDocument.SaveToStream(Response.OutputStream);
Response.End();

To continue with the training, please download the library and follow the examples!

History

  • August 8th, 2005 - First release.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPLv3)


Written By
Web Developer
Italy Italy
Freelance software ASPNET / C# Software Developer

I live in Torino, Italy

my homepage is: http://www.paologios.com

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMultiple Font-Styles Pin
danh3311-Apr-06 12:17
danh3311-Apr-06 12:17 
AnswerRe: Multiple Font-Styles Pin
nep4uk22-Nov-06 23:16
nep4uk22-Nov-06 23:16 
QuestionHow can it support Chinese? Pin
btshida4-Apr-06 2:30
btshida4-Apr-06 2:30 
GeneralDPI For Images? :confused: Pin
badoubade13-Feb-06 23:18
badoubade13-Feb-06 23:18 
GeneralPage Numbers Pin
DadKind19-Jan-06 12:54
DadKind19-Jan-06 12:54 
GeneralRe: Page Numbers Pin
Paolo Gios19-Jan-06 12:58
Paolo Gios19-Jan-06 12:58 
AnswerRe: Page Numbers Pin
j-on12-Apr-06 8:56
j-on12-Apr-06 8:56 
Questiongreat job - do u know how to make excel files ? Pin
haim magen20-Dec-05 17:44
haim magen20-Dec-05 17:44 
AnswerRe: great job - do u know how to make excel files ? Pin
Paolo Gios20-Dec-05 21:23
Paolo Gios20-Dec-05 21:23 
Generalexcel request Pin
haim magen20-Dec-05 22:15
haim magen20-Dec-05 22:15 
AnswerRe: excel request Pin
Carsten Zeumer21-Dec-05 8:46
Carsten Zeumer21-Dec-05 8:46 
GeneralRe: excel request Pin
haim magen21-Dec-05 11:06
haim magen21-Dec-05 11:06 
QuestionWhat about parsing the RTF document? Pin
Super Lloyd17-Nov-05 18:24
Super Lloyd17-Nov-05 18:24 
GeneralBravo! Pin
Andrea Cioli27-Aug-05 4:14
Andrea Cioli27-Aug-05 4:14 
GeneralGreat code! Pin
Alessio.NET18-Aug-05 2:54
Alessio.NET18-Aug-05 2:54 
GeneralRe: Great code! Pin
Paolo Gios18-Aug-05 9:50
Paolo Gios18-Aug-05 9:50 
Generalgood , but Pin
Huisheng Chen8-Aug-05 20:25
Huisheng Chen8-Aug-05 20:25 
GeneralRe: good , but Pin
Rei Miyasaka8-Aug-05 21:05
Rei Miyasaka8-Aug-05 21:05 
GeneralRe: good , but Pin
Paolo Gios8-Aug-05 23:29
Paolo Gios8-Aug-05 23:29 
GeneralRe: good , but Pin
Rei Miyasaka9-Aug-05 2:26
Rei Miyasaka9-Aug-05 2:26 
GeneralRe: good , but Pin
Huisheng Chen9-Aug-05 2:44
Huisheng Chen9-Aug-05 2:44 
GeneralI think I got it Pin
Rei Miyasaka9-Aug-05 16:32
Rei Miyasaka9-Aug-05 16:32 
GeneralRe: I think I got it Pin
Huisheng Chen10-Aug-05 5:22
Huisheng Chen10-Aug-05 5:22 
GeneralRe: I think I got it Pin
Paolo Gios10-Aug-05 6:55
Paolo Gios10-Aug-05 6:55 
GeneralA little bit of sad news Pin
Rei Miyasaka12-Aug-05 14:20
Rei Miyasaka12-Aug-05 14:20 

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