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Word Control for .NET

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28 Jan 2003GPL33 min read 1.1M   46.5K   193   229
Writing a control to use MS-Word in your own Application like a windows-form.

Sample Image - winwordcontrol.jpg

Introduction

This control allows you to use MS Word 2000 in your own projects such as a windows form. Of course that's a little "dirty trick". But if you have some documentation to display and you want to use Word for it, here is the solution.

Background

I was working on an internal research project and we developed a tool to teach C++, and there was a problem about how to display the exercises. The main problem was, I had difficult formulas in these descriptions so the only possible solution was to convert the files to PDF or to another file format. With PDF I had a problem, because I couldn't edit the documents afterwards. So, I was looking for an ActiveX or .NET control for MS Word. Finally, I couldn't find one. So I decided to write one for .NET.

How to use the control?

It's almost too easy to use the form. You just need to add a link to the winwordcontrol.dll.  The steps are:

  1. Goto your Toolbox.

    Visual Studio Toolbox
     

  2. Click right. Select "Customize Toolbox".

    Toolbox Cutomizing
     

  3. Select the ".NET Components" tab.
  4. Select the winwordcontrol.dll using the file browse dialog. Click OK. After that you will find a new form in your toolbox called "winwordcontrol".

    Toolbox winwordcontrol/winwordcontrol

Drag and drop it just like any other form. The only thing you should know is how to control it. At this moment, there are four methods:

winwordcontrolinstance.LoadDocument(<string path>); 
With LoadDocument you can load all files Word can handle. Please specify the complete path! This is the only method that is probably useful for everyone. All the other methods are not necessary for normal use.
winwordcontrolinstance.CloseControl(); 
This method closes the actual document. This is mostly not necessary because LoadDocument() can handle multiple calls without calling CloseControl() before.
winwordcontrolinstance.PreActivate(); 
Preloading. This method should be used if you don't want to wait in the main program until Word is finished starting.
winwordcontrolinstance.RestoreWord(); 
Reactivates all the Menubars.

The control will automatically start Word if it's not already open and it will display the document.

How does this work?

The basic idea is to instantiate the Word application, as everybody knows, with:

wordInstance = new Word.Application();
Now we have the Word application in a separate window. How do we get this window in our control? The answer is ... Win32 API. We need to import some API functions from user32.dll as shown here:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int FindWindow(string strclassName, string strWindowName);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int SetParent(int hWndChild, int hWndNewParent);

[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetWindowPos")]
static extern bool SetWindowPos(
	int hWnd,               // handle to window
	int hWndInsertAfter,    // placement-order handle
	int X,                  // horizontal position
	int Y,                  // vertical position
	int cx,                 // width
	int cy,                 // height
	uint uFlags             // window-positioning options
);
		
[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "MoveWindow")]
static extern bool MoveWindow(
	int hWnd, 
	int X, 
	int Y, 
	int nWidth, 
	int nHeight, 
	bool bRepaint
);
							
const int SWP_DRAWFRAME = 0x20;
const int SWP_NOMOVE = 0x2;
const int SWP_NOSIZE = 0x1;
const int SWP_NOZORDER = 0x4;
This is the most complicated part... because it's NOT documented at all. We need a Pointer to the Word window, so we use FindWindow to find it. What's the name of the window? - "Opusapp" Actually, I don't know what this name means, but it works perfectly.
wordWnd = FindWindow( "Opusapp", null);
So, now we can define our control as a parent to Word:
SetWindowPos(wordWnd, this.Handle.ToInt32(), 0, 0,
	this.Bounds.Width-20, this.Bounds.Height-20,
	SWP_NOZORDER | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_DRAWFRAME );
Everything else should be pretty easy and it is well documented in the official documentation for the Word namespace.

Points of Interest

You may be interested in my other projects. Please visit my private homepage www.intercompu.de. If you use this stuff or if you use just parts of it, I would appreciate if you mention my name. ;-)

History

  • 23.01.03 First release
  • 25.01.03 Update minor changes (performance enhancement)

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The GNU General Public License (GPLv3)


Written By
CEO
Germany Germany
I am a developer with a Computer Science degree. I am programming Visual C ++ for over 7 year now and C# for about 3 years. If you want to know more about me please look at my homepage: www.intercompu.de

Comments and Discussions

 
AnswerRe: when can the error that it's "Error: do not load the document into the control until the parent window is shown" happen? Pin
Matthias Hänel18-Feb-03 21:19
Matthias Hänel18-Feb-03 21:19 
AnswerRe: when can the error that it's "Error: do not load the document into the control until the parent window is shown" happen? Pin
Christiaan van Bergen14-May-03 23:55
professionalChristiaan van Bergen14-May-03 23:55 
Generalwhy the wrong is send to me when I run the WinWordTestApp.exe Pin
xhw18-Feb-03 5:20
xhw18-Feb-03 5:20 
GeneralSo much better then WebBrowserContol!! Pin
JMercado9-Feb-03 22:05
JMercado9-Feb-03 22:05 
GeneralRe: So much better then WebBrowserContol!! Pin
Matthias Hänel11-Feb-03 0:01
Matthias Hänel11-Feb-03 0:01 
Generalerrors building control Pin
antidemon5-Feb-03 3:15
antidemon5-Feb-03 3:15 
GeneralRe: errors building control Pin
Matthias Hänel5-Feb-03 10:58
Matthias Hänel5-Feb-03 10:58 
GeneralRe: errors building control Pin
antidemon5-Feb-03 22:27
antidemon5-Feb-03 22:27 
The test application does work for me, but I would like to alter the control to do things such as displaying the ruler or toolbars.

I don't have any yellow exclamation marks, but I deleted and then re-added the Office and Word references anyway. still the same.

I think that OfficeXP probably has new versions of these event handlers which is what is causing the problem.

I have managed to get the code to compile by changing it to:

<br />
wd.DocumentBeforeClose += new Word.ApplicationEvents3_DocumentBeforeCloseEventHandler(OnClose);<br />
wd.ApplicationEvents3_Event_NewDocument += new Word.ApplicationEvents3_NewDocumentEventHandler(OnNewDoc);<br />
wd.DocumentOpen += new Word.ApplicationEvents3_DocumentOpenEventHandler(OnOpenDoc);<br />


thanks for the help Smile | :)
Huw
GeneralRe: errors building control Pin
Matthias Hänel6-Feb-03 2:40
Matthias Hänel6-Feb-03 2:40 
GeneralMethod not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
Chris Richner29-Jan-03 22:39
Chris Richner29-Jan-03 22:39 
GeneralRe: Method not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
Matthias Hänel30-Jan-03 4:57
Matthias Hänel30-Jan-03 4:57 
GeneralRe: Method not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
Matthias Hänel30-Jan-03 12:42
Matthias Hänel30-Jan-03 12:42 
GeneralRe: Method not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
Chris Richner30-Jan-03 13:22
Chris Richner30-Jan-03 13:22 
GeneralRe: Method not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
Matthias Hänel5-Feb-03 11:02
Matthias Hänel5-Feb-03 11:02 
GeneralRe: Method not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
Chris Richner5-Feb-03 11:22
Chris Richner5-Feb-03 11:22 
GeneralRe: Method not found: Office.CommandBars Pin
ibaf3121-May-03 12:42
ibaf3121-May-03 12:42 
GeneralAn alternative way Pin
Rama Krishna Vavilala29-Jan-03 11:13
Rama Krishna Vavilala29-Jan-03 11:13 
GeneralRe: An alternative way Pin
Matthias Hänel29-Jan-03 20:45
Matthias Hänel29-Jan-03 20:45 
GeneralRe: An alternative way Pin
JMercado9-Feb-03 22:08
JMercado9-Feb-03 22:08 
GeneralRe: An alternative way Pin
Rama Krishna Vavilala10-Feb-03 3:13
Rama Krishna Vavilala10-Feb-03 3:13 
GeneralRe: An alternative way Pin
JMercado10-Feb-03 20:05
JMercado10-Feb-03 20:05 
GeneralRe: An alternative way Pin
daisyshi14-Jun-03 22:37
daisyshi14-Jun-03 22:37 
GeneralPath to dll, Pin
Chris Richner29-Jan-03 9:20
Chris Richner29-Jan-03 9:20 
GeneralRe: Path to dll, Pin
Matthias Hänel29-Jan-03 20:36
Matthias Hänel29-Jan-03 20:36 
GeneralRe: Path to dll, Pin
Chris Richner29-Jan-03 22:34
Chris Richner29-Jan-03 22:34 

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