[RESOLVED] [2005] Microsoft Word Reference Problem

[stimbo]

I've got Office 2003 (fully patched etc..)

I simply want to add a reference to word in my .NET application.

I started a new project, Add Reference and browsed to: MicroSoft Word 11.0 Object Library and clicked OK.

I've got 2 warnings:

Cannot find wrapper assembly for type library "Word"
The referenced component "Word" could not be found

Everything seems to be ok (i.e. I can open Word by itself and it's installed in the standard directory).

If I go to Project - Properties - References, it says that it can't find the reference specified.

I don't know how to solve this problem. I've been searching but i must be doing something wrong. Can someone help me please?

Thanks,

edit Actually, just out of interest i tried to add an excel reference and it's not working either so it's a general problem rather than specific to Word.

[RobDog888]

What if you try to add it to a new project?

[stimbo]

That's what I did, it was a new project to begin with. I closed Studio down, no office programs are running either, re-opened VS, and then created a new project and tried to add the reference. There's no code yet been added. Totally new.

I'll give my computer a restart (not that i think it will help but hey....)

[RobDog888]

Just seen your Edit and was wondering if it also affects any reference other then Office ones?

[stimbo]

I'm not sure, I added two .dll files (Apple quicktime library files) and they added fine. Added an Adobe Reader reference and it was fine.

I then tried a few others and they are giving the same messages as above although without the wrapper message.

However, if I write Imports .... they appear as you would expect. (the office ones don't).

What's going on?!? Please don't tell me I have to re-install visual studio! I hate doing that. It takes forever.

[RobDog888]

Sounds like something is awry with VS and not Office then. If you can do without adding references for a while then I guess thats fine until you get the time to re-install or do a repair of VS.

[stimbo]

There goes my Friday night

[RobDog888]

Should take less then 1 hour unless you are running an older AMD. An Intel chip will make short work of repairing VS.

[stimbo]

I did the repair and it hasn't solved it.

I'm going to uninstall and reinstall Office first of all before I finally have to reinstall VS if it comes to it.

[RobDog888]

Why dont you want to use Outlook 2003?

[stimbo]

sorry Rob, I don't know what you mean. What has Outlook got to do with it?

[RobDog888]

Oops, sorry. Wrong thread. Was thinking of another thread with references pointing to Outlook 12 vs 11 in a mixed version environment.

[stimbo]

No problem.

Rob, while you are here can I ask a quick question about your office development FAQ. The reason i want to add a word reference is because a friend of mine wants to get info from an access database and then export it to word. I said I'd help. I can do the DB stuff but I've never placed data into a Word doc before. Your example is in VB6 - is the code for VB 2005 any different or pretty much the same?

Anything i should be aware of or can you point me to a good resource that you know of?

[VBDT]

When you add referenc to the MS Word do you get one reference or three. I just refernced it and got three without any warnings.

[stimbo]

Is that from the Project - Properties - References - bit?

I only got 1. The MS Word 11.0 Object Library Reference (version 8.3.0.0)

I'm in the middle of re-installing Office at the moment. Will post back in a bit with news...

oh btw, what's the full reference path?

C:\Windows\assembly\...... ??

[VBDT]

Yes, I just referenced the Word 11.0 Object Library and got three of them at onec. I think you shold have these references in order to be able to use the word.

[stimbo]

Good news, the uninstall/re-install of Office did the trick. It seems to be working now.

Strange stuff indeed.

Thanks for your time.

[RobDog888]

You should get just this in the soution explorer.

[RobDog888]

I can do the DB stuff but I've never placed data into a Word doc before. Your example is in VB6 - is the code for VB 2005 any different or pretty much the same?

Anything i should be aware of or can you point me to a good resource that you know of?

The code is the same with the exceptions of no "Set" and the constants will be OOP'ed

[stimbo]

I don't have that - I've got this after adding the word reference or this the same thing just without some of the reference path....

[RobDog888]

Do you have the Office PIAs installed? (link in my signature).

[VBDT]

I think you need to check the "Microsoft.Office.Interapt.Word" check box in the "Imported Namespaces" List box under the Project property -> Reference
Edit * never mind.

[RobDog888]

No, I never have to check anything.

It looks like you dont have the PIAs.

[VBDT]

You are right Rob. I noticed it too. Maybe restarting the windows and starting new project will fix this.

[VBDT]

No, I never have to check anything.

It looks like you dont have the PIAs.

Rob what is the PIA's? I don't remember installing it. Does it come with the Office package?

[RobDog888]

Office Programmibility Interface Assemblies. They are a included but not default installed option when installling Office. You need to select them in the custom install.

[VBDT]

I see, I remember installing the office as full so I guess it included it. Thank for the info.

[RobDog888]

One easy way to tell is if you type in the general declarations section the ...

Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop and you get the intellisense for .Interop.
If you only get.Core then you dont have it.

[stimbo]

I just can't get this working. I followed the instructions and think i did everything correctly in regards to installing the PIA's

EDIT Ah, hold on: I did what you said and both of them came up - Core and Interop

[stimbo]

Rob,

at the top of my form when I type Imports , WORD should appear in the list, correct? Because it's not and my project explorer References bit still isn't showing anything like yours still (although i do have the Core and Interop paths available when I write out the path mentioned earlier).

I'm still getting what I had originally. I've just added a reference to Excel as well and nothing is coming up when i write an Imports statement there either. I did this on my work laptop ages ago and simply added the reference, and wrote imports ....... and everything worked with no trouble. This is my home computer

The copies of VS and Office are 100% totally legit in case anyone is wondering.

[RobDog888]

If you added the reference to Word then you should get a popup for Word after .Interop.

[stimbo]

ok, it seems to be working. Thanks for being so patient! As a quick test I created a word doc in my documents and then used your vb6 code and it wrote out the text.

Oh, one final question if you don't mind.

oApp.Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToLine, Which:=wdGoToLast

In 2005, what do I have to do here?

[RobDog888]

Cool, glad its finally working now.

Here is the .NET equilivalent since we are importing the .Interop class we can shorten the constants to just Word.xxxx

oApp.Selection.GoTo(What:=Word.WdGoToItem.wdGoToLine, Which:=Word.WdGoToDirection.wdGoToLast)

[stimbo]

Ah, that makes sense.

So everytime it looks for a Ref of Object type I should type Word. and choose the appropriate object type it's looking for. Thanks once again.

[RobDog888]

Yes, as long as you are importing the .Interop class. If you import all the way down to the .Word class then it shortens it by one more object cclass. Only drawback with that is that both .NET and Office have an "Application" object. so you may get some confusion by the compiler of which class an Application object belongs to. IMO, its always better and easier to only import down to the .Interop so each application class will be identified properly.