Generating Word Document with OpenXML SDK and giving it styles that exist in Word

Question

4.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

So I am working on code that generates word documents, and I really want to be able to make a paragraph not just look like, but be the same style as what you would get if you set it to the Title style that is available in the default set of styles Word's GUI provides.

Everything I find leaves me feeling like I am going to have to programatically define and then add styles to my document for each one. Doing that however will make those styles essentially duplicates of the ones already in Word if someone opens up the file.

I will be very grateful to anyone who has good information on how to do this. It seems like it should be doable, but I am still a newb with this SDK.

thanks,

Danny

Posted 29-Mar-11 19:34pm

DannyStaten

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

GenJerDan · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-30T03:40:00

Solution 1

Are you complete generating the Word doc in code?

If so, the paragraph style is set pretty easily:

Paragraph paragraph1 = new Paragraph() 
{ 
  RsidParagraphAddition = "00CB5EB1", RsidParagraphProperties = "00020731", RsidRunAdditionDefault = "00020731" 
};
ParagraphProperties paragraphProperties1 = new ParagraphProperties();
ParagraphStyleId paragraphStyleId1 = new ParagraphStyleId() { Val = "Title" };
paragraphProperties1.Append(paragraphStyleId1);

The lines above the StyleID lines are just the paragraph identifier, not specific to the style, and will change for each paragraph. I just left them in there for context.

The paragraphStyleId is the "important" part. :)

Posted 30-Mar-11 3:40am

GenJerDan

Updated 30-Mar-11 3:47am

v2

Comments

DannyStaten 30-Mar-11 10:14am

Thanks. I am generating my style completely in code so this should be perfect. I will be sure to give it a try as soon as I get home from work being that this is a personal project I am doing on the side 8).

DannyStaten 30-Mar-11 21:55pm

So far I have been trying what you are suggesting and it isn't doing anything.

Paragraph chapterHeader = new Paragraph(new Run(new Text(chapter.Name)));
ParagraphProperties props = new ParagraphProperties();
ParagraphStyleId pStyle = new ParagraphStyleId() { Val = "Title" };
props.Append(pStyle);
chapterHeader.PrependChild(props);
buildingBody.Append(chapterHeader);

That is resulting in xml that appears identical, but when I open my word document there is no style applied.

I am not assigning the rsids on my paragraphs. I guess I don't yet understand their purpose, but that wouldn't be part of what the current problem is I assume.

DannyStaten 30-Mar-11 22:45pm

So I found something that lets me do what I was trying for, and may be something you were assuming I was already doing. A blog post here http://www.labo-dotnet.com/post/Create-Word-document-using-the-OpenXML-20-SDK.aspx shows how to pull a style definition from an existing document, include it in your project and then load that styles.xml in as the styles part for your programatically created docx. It saves me the trouble of having to define my styles programatically, and once I have done that, the styles do work as they are applied. A note to any who do that: You must extract the styles you want from a document that uses them explicitly in it's contents or the styles.xml won't define that style.

GenJerDan 30-Mar-11 23:21pm

Ah. I guess they need to be embedded somewhere "upstream" of them being applied. Good to know.
Actually, the easiest way to do all this is to design your doc in Word, save it, then use the Document Reflector to deconstruct it into a C# class.