Word Component

[venerable bede]

Hi All,

I have been asked to add some functionality to an application which will require Microsoft Word.

The new work needs to allow the users to create .dot files and perform mail merge operations.

I have gone down the road of using the dsoframer component in the past and would prefer to avoid it if possible.

Can anyone recommend a good third party component that will allow me to do this sort of thing?

I have noticed that the controls I have looked at seem to be viewer controls allowing read only operations which is not good enough for this task.


Thanks In Advance

[Jenner]

Can't you do all that via the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word namespace?

[venerable bede]

I have no idea what version of office they will have so apart from late binding there is not a lot I can do.

I certainly cant reference word to generate an interop assembly.

[Jenner]

Ahh, I see your predicament. The whole cross-version support hell. You're essentially looking for a third-party component that handles all that garbage for you under the hood and interfaces with any reasonably current version of Word. I have a buddy who went through this about a year ago and I think he did the same thing. Let me give him a call and see what he used if nothing else pops up.

[Jenner]

Just got back from him (usually takes him a day to get back with me, must be slow over there ), he tells me he used Aspose.Words for .NET and it's a killer product if you need to twiddle heaploads of office documents. He says it can do mail-merge type operations, table population, etc on .DOC and other document filetypes and you don't even need Office installed on the end-user machine for it to work.

I've personally never had a need for such a product, but it sounds pretty nice and exactly what you'd be looking for.

[venerable bede]

That looks good but man is it expensive.

It amazes me how these plugins cost way more then the apllications themselves.

I'll do a bit of research and get back to you.

[Jenner]

Yea, $900 isn't cheap, heck, their "total" package (which is everything) is only $2000, but it looks like Words is their flagship product from their lineup.