Gios WORD .NET Library (using RTF specification)

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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:

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:

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

And now we set some alignment:

myWordDocument.SetTextAlign(WordTextAlign.Center);

To write a text... You can imagine:

myWordDocument.Write("Hello World!");

And, in the end, you output the document!

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:

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 8^th, 2005 - First release.

License

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

About the Author

Paolo Gios

Web Developer

Italy

Member

Freelance software ASPNET / C# Software Developer

I live in Torino, Italy

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

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Issues on clean Windows 7 (32 bit) system?

kembo

14:53 25 Aug '11

My project work perfect on XP but on a clean Windows 7 (32 bits) with NO WORD or NO MS Office products installed, i get no tables... no errors either...? Anyone seen this?
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AutoFitBehavior (wdAutoFitContent)

mail-22

1:47 16 Aug '11

how to apply to the table, click "auto-fit the width of the window?"
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Turkish Encoding Problem is solved simply.

emarti

11:18 4 Jun '11

I hope, suggest new ideas. Thanks Paolo Gios for article.

TR: Umarım yararlı olur. Sizin çözümünüz varsa gönderin.

// WordDocument.cs

		#region calculated properties
		internal string Header
		{
			get
			{
			    //string s= "{";
                //s+="\\rtf1\\ansi\n";
                //s+=this.FontTable;
                //s+=this.ColorTable;
                //if (this.StartPage>-1) s+="\\pgnstart"+this.StartPage+"\n";
                //return s;

                return @"{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1254\deff0\deflang1055{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset162{\*\fname Arial;}Arial TUR;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.21.2510;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sa200\sl276\slmult1\f0\fs22";
 
			    //return s;
			}
		}

// Utulity.cs

		internal static string Encode(string s)
		{
			s=s.Replace(@"\",@"\\");
			System.Text.StringBuilder sb=new System.Text.StringBuilder();
			foreach (char c in s.ToCharArray())
			{
                //if ((c >= 48 && c <= 122) || c == '\n' || c == ' ') sb.Append(c);
                //else
                //{
                //    if (c == '€')
                //        sb.Append("\\'80");
                //    else
                //    {
                //        byte[] Bytes = ue.GetBytes(new char[] { c });
                //        string tmp = "\\'" + Utility.ToHexString(Bytes[0]);
                //        sb.Append(tmp);
                //    }
                //}

                if ((c >= 48 && c <= 122) || c == '\n' || c == ' ') sb.Append(c);
                else
                {
                    switch (c)
                    {
                        case '€':
                            sb.Append("\\'80");
                            break;
                        case 'ç':
                            sb.Append("\\'e7");
                            break;
                        case 'ö':
                            sb.Append("\\'f6");
                            break;
                        case 'ı':
                            sb.Append("\\'fd");
                            break;
                        case 'ş':
                            sb.Append("\\'fe");
                            break;
                        case 'ü':
                            sb.Append("\\'fc");
                            break;
                        case 'ğ':
                            sb.Append("\\'f0");
                            break;
                        case 'Ç':
                            sb.Append("\\'c7");
                            break;
                        case 'Ö':
                            sb.Append("\\'d6");
                            break;
                        case 'İ':
                            sb.Append("\\'dd");
                            break;
                        case 'Ş':
                            sb.Append("\\'de");
                            break;
                        case 'Ü':
                            sb.Append("\\'dc");
                            break;
                        case 'Ğ':
                            sb.Append("\\'d0");
                            break;
                        default:
                            {
                                byte[] Bytes = ue.GetBytes(new char[] { c });
                                string tmp = "\\'" + Utility.ToHexString(Bytes[0]);
                                sb.Append(tmp);
                            }
                            break;
                    }
                }
 

			}
			return sb.ToString().Replace("\r\n","\\par").Replace("\n","\\par ");
 
		}

Divinum est sedare dolorem

How do I set the First Page Header Or Footer Different with other page on word document by using this library?

lin ma59

6:05 23 Jul '09

How do I set the First Page Header Or Footer Different with other pages on word document by using this library? like doc.PageSetup.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = -1; modified on Friday, July 24, 2009 4:24 PM
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Open an existing document?

Tommy W

0:17 13 May '09

Hi, Library looks great. I was wondering if you have ever had to modify the library to enable the opening of a RTF or word "template"? Thanks, Tom.
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Document won't show correctly in WordPad (or RichtextBox)

Member 4526912

4:54 27 Oct '08

Hi,

this looks like a great contribution, thanks a lot for making it available!

I do have a problem though. I am trying this with VS Express 2008. The example document works fine in Word, but when I try to open it in WordPad, the image won't show and the table looks different. Trying to display it within the program in a richTextBox - using richtextbox1.loadFile("example.doc") - the image also does not show and the table is corrupted, even though the file is saved as an RTF file.

Is there any thing I can do to make the output work with simpler RTF compatible tools than Word?

Any help is appreciated. I would like to use this to generate invoices directly from sales data (small scale bookstore), and don't want to send Word files as attachments, but just put the RTF within an e-mail.

Best regards
Reiner

Re: Document won't show correctly in WordPad (or RichtextBox)

Never Winter

17:18 5 Jan '09

Confirmed. I got the same problem. Can someone help us?
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Render to image

josepaulino

18:36 19 Aug '08

Is it possible to render the rtf to an image using this library?

I loaded a rtf file in a richtextbox control and tried the following:

            Gios.Word.WordDocument d = new WordDocument(WordDocumentFormat.Letter_8_5x11);
 

            d.WriteRtf(richTextBox1.Rtf);
 
            MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
 
            d.RenderToStream(ms);
 
            Image img = Image.FromStream(ms);
 
            img.Save("c:\test.bmp");

It threw an exception at Image.FromStream(ms) saying "Parameter is invalid". What is the output stream do? Do I need to use GDI+ to render it? If so how? Any insight would be good, I've been googling like crazy and not finding any source code to render an rtf.

Thanks in advance,
Jose

Change table size and Aligment

Tai Fei Pao

8:12 18 Aug '08

Hi: I try to adjust the table size to full docuemnt length and align table to left. How do I change this code? Thanks, Tai Fei Pao WordTable rt = rd.NewTable(new Font("Arial", 12), Color.Black, 2, 9, 0); rt.SetColumnsWidth(new int[]{20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20});
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Solution for Table of contents

vavavivi

4:07 3 Jul '08

It's impossible to create a TOC, so let user do it.

We create the entries, then let user right-click to see it :

Example code :

rd.WriteRtf(@"{\stylesheet
{\style\s2 \ql\fi0\li0\ri0\f1\fs24\cf0 Normal;}

{\style\s0 \ql\fi0\li0\ri0\f0\fs22\cf0 toc 1;}

{\style\s5 \ql\fi0\li0\ri0\f1\fs26\b\cf0 heading 3;}

{\style\s4 \ql\fi0\li0\ri0\f1\fs28\b\i\cf0 heading 2;}

{\style\s1 \ql\fi0\li200\ri0\f0\fs20\cf0 toc 2;}
{\style\s3 \ql\fi0\li0\ri0\f1\fs32\b\cf0 heading 1;}
}

{\*\listtable
}
{\*\listoverridetable
}

{\info}
\paperw11907\paperh16840\margl720\margr720\margt720\margb720
\pgwsxn11907\pghsxn16840
\marglsxn720\margrsxn720\margtsxn720\margbsxn720\pard\plain\s2\fi0\li0\ri0\sl320\plain\f2{\field{\*\fldinst TOC \\f \\h \\u \\o 1-5 }{\fldrslt Right-click here and select Update to see the table of contents. }}

\par\pard\plain\s3\ql\fi0\li0\ri0\plain\f1\fs32\b\cf0 Heading 1");

Hope my solution is useful for someone

Page Current Number

vavavivi

1:56 3 Jul '08

Hi, I want to know the page current number. Someone helps me please, Thanks in advance,
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Re: Page Current Number

Paolo Gios

2:01 3 Jul '08

I'm sorry but it's not possible: word document has a flow layout, and the library cannot predict where the flow currently is. Paolo
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Re: Page Current Number

vavavivi

2:31 3 Jul '08

Ok, thank you for answering. Anyway, your library is great ! Thank you
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Re: Page Current Number

Tatjana Pede

10:57 16 Jul '09

Hi, try insert in WordDocument.cs this : public void CurrentPage() // page current number { this.Write("\n\\chpgn\n",false); } public void NumOfPages() { this.Write("\n{\\field{\\fldinst NUMPAGES \\*PAGE}}\n", false); // and number of pages in document } Only one note - this'll work only in footer or header
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How to add checkbox?

gkee

16:42 28 Apr '08

Your API is excellent. I need to generate a word document form with checkbox. How do I go about doing it? Is reading up on rtf specification but gotten lost. Please advise. Thank you.
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adding landscape page and portrait page in same document.

Najeed

17:24 12 Dec '07

Hi i would like to create one RTF document with first page as portrait and second page as landscape... Is it possible??? Any help will be appreciated
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RTF to PDF Converter for .NET

flchivu1

5:19 3 Sep '07

IF you want a good commercial RTF to PDF converter for .NET you can try the one from Dotnet-Reporting.Com or the RTF to PDF component from Winnovative Software, is the same.
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Unicode characters bugfix

dejandular

4:28 12 Aug '07

Hey!

Your library didn't work with my unicode characters. To write an unicode character in RTF, you must write its decimal number with \u escape sequence.

So just replace the code in foreach statement in your utility's Encode function with this code: (You don't need special if for € sign anymore)

if ((c >= 48 && c <= 122) || c == '\n' || c == ' ' ) sb.Append(c);
else
{
string tmp = "\\u" + (int)c + " ";
sb.Append(tmp);
}

Re: Unicode characters bugfix

Hamid Reza Mohammadi

19:32 23 Sep '07

Good point! Thank you! But it did work for me in this way: `string tmp = "\\u" + (int)c + "\\'ed";` I wanted to display Persian characters and it did not work as you pointed out, so I compared it with what WordPad generates and I found this. Hope to be useful for anybody trying to generate Persian or Arabic RTF.
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Re: Unicode characters bugfix

Simon Pham

17:17 1 Jan '08

I spend sometime to find out how to fix for Vietnamese. This is my final result:
internal static string Encode(string s)
{
s=s.Replace("\\","\\\\");
System.Text.StringBuilder sb=new System.Text.StringBuilder();
foreach (char c in s.ToCharArray())
{
if ((c >= 48 && c <= 122) || c == '\n' || c == ' ' || c == '\t')
{
sb.Append(c);
}
else
{
if (c == '€')
sb.Append("\\'80");
else
{
if (c < 256)
{
byte[] Bytes = ue.GetBytes(new char[] { c });
string tmp = "\\'" + Utility.ToHexString(Bytes[0]);

sb.Append(tmp);
}
else
sb.Append("\\u" + (int)c + "?");
}
}
}
return sb.ToString().Replace("\r\n","\\par").Replace("\n","\\par ");

}

29718

Re: Unicode characters bugfix

inormis

20:24 16 Feb '10

Thx very much.
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Re: Unicode characters bugfix

Masoud Aghdasi Fam

0:03 23 May '09

Thanks alot.
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Re: Unicode characters bugfix

Member 8199323

16:08 30 Aug '11

Thank you, solved problem with russian encoding as well.
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Make Table on New Page

Catch Anand

22:56 31 Jul '07

Hi,
How to Make Table on Next Page ... I am usnig following code but it not working kindly help

WordDocument rd=new WordDocument(WordDocumentFormat.Letter_8_5x11_Horizontal);
WordTable rr1=rd.NewTable(regular,Color.Black,1,1,0);
rr1.SetColumnsWidth(new int[]{100});
rr1.Rows[0][0].Write("hello First Page");
rr1.SaveToDocument(10000,0);

rd.newPage();
WordTable rr2=rd.NewTable(regular,Color.Black,1,1,0);
rr2.SetColumnsWidth(new int[]{100});
rr2.Rows[0][0].Write("hello Second Page");
rr2.SaveToDocument(10000,0);

rd.SaveToFile("..\\..\\Example2.doc");