When in Windows XP, if I open the properties window for the file and click the second tab, I will find a window where to add attributes or remove them.
While developing things, I noticed there was actually something I wanted to know about the file. How to retrieve this data? It's a string with name 'DESCRIPTION'.
The actual tab is saying 'Custom'. I think it's called metadata what it shows.
I noticed that only the files I'm looking at have that tab. It seems to be specific only for the SLDLFP -file.
Not on an XP machine, but I think this might work
FileVersionInfo myFileVersionInfo = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo("path.txt");
string desc = myFileVersionInfo.FileDescription;
I think the custom tab is only available for Office documents, and display custom properties (In Word, File -> Properties, Custom tab).
The best way to get the information would be by using MS Office hooks. Last time I did anything like this, it was using OLE Automation, so good luck!
Edit:
Since you added a mention of SLDLFP, I'm guessing that you are working with SolidWorks files.
There may be some standard APIs for this, but none that I have heard of.
Using SolidWorks via Automation is probably going to be your best bet.
I found a link describing how to read these kind of values with a Word 2003 and VB.Net, I would expect that it is similar to how to do this with SolidWorks.
Reading and Writing Custom Document Properties in Microsoft Office Word 2003 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
I think this applies to all microsoft office based documents (and not all the other files).
You might need to automate word/excel/powerpoint to get that info.
OR you might need some kind of a binary file reader for MSOffice based files to read the attributes.
Related
I would like to programatically (C#) change the MS Word Advanced option: "Do not compress images in file" using Office.Interop.
How can I do this.
I have looked through the MSDN Library but don't see what I need.
Sorry, but the "Do not compress images in file" option is not accessible via the VBA object model.
Although you could use SendKeys, doing so is not reliable - amongst other things, you can only toggle the setting with SendKeys; you can't test it's current state or set it to a particular state and the keystroke sequence required to access it might change according to which languages a user has installed and which Word version is in use.
Source : http://answers.flyppdevportal.com/MVC/Post/Thread/c87d426e-3571-44a7-85a5-2d7edfa4ce60?category=worddev
Another source with more information (on Powerpoint, but it works exactly the same way as for Word) :
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_powerpoint-mso_other/vba-turn-off-auto-compression/9548f7c0-894d-4e76-acc1-4985df08fd50
My windows forms application uses Novacode DocX to write a document from a template. The Novacode portion of the project works perfect and the file saves. The issue is that when I load the document the field/s (Table Of Contents) are not updated when the Novacode portion adds headings and such.
I could, and did, write a macro to update fields on open. This would solve the problem, but not everyone that will use my application will have this macro. I can't save the file as a .docm file with the macro attached for various reasons (assume file must be ".docx").
What I've found is that the Microsoft.office.interop.Word assembly will allow me to call "Fields.Update". My understanding is this will do the trick, but I can't block users that don't have word installed from running my application. My understanding is that if I am "Using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word", or have it in my references that the application won't run if someone doesn't have word.
So I have code that checks if word is installed. If I run this, and it is installed, can I then use "Late Binding" to run interop code? Other related questions, have replies that point to "NetOffice" as a way to run interop without checking if word is installed.
I'm trying to make this as comprehensive as possible with my research. My question is very similar to this one "
how do I easily test the case where my C# application can't find an external assembly?". I would hope this issue can soon be solved for everyone, but I'm not sure it will be.
Side note, if anyone knows a way to update the fields, or even just the existing TOC, of a word document that is saved in the ".docx" format without having word installed that would be awesome to know, and would circumvent my whole issue. Although I would still like to know the answer to the interop question.
Also this is my first real question on StackOverflow, if you have tags to suggest please do so along with your answer. If you have feedback on how I ask my question, I will accept that too, but please don't close/delete the question without any answers. I linked to questions that are similar, but those questions have not gotten responses in a while. I believe I have done everything according to the rules.
This is more of an answer to your "if anyone knows a way to update the fields, or even just the existing TOC, of a word document that is saved in the ".docx" format without having word installed" question, but you might want to look in to the Open XML SDK for Office.
This will let you modify .docx files without having any dependency on having Word installed.
I found this tutorial which I think is doing almost exactly what you are wanting do do using the Open XML SDK.
Many things to say, but I think I found my answers
The main question was if I add the reference to "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word" and the client running the application does not have word, where will the application fail? My understanding now, is that it will not fail on launch if the client does not have word. It will, however, fail when the code that uses the "Office.Interop.Word" is reached.
The way to prevent this, is a simple registry check method. I used a variation of This method to check the registry. Then before any of my code that uses the "Office.Interop.Word" code is run, I check if the client has word in the registry. If they don't have word, I take the proper notification actions for my application. I also surrounded the "Office.Interop.Word" code in a "try catch" exception block as a double safe measure. In my code the exception would mean word is not installed. A variation of the code using "Office.Interop.Word" I used to update fields can be found here.
Novacode DocX can support Docm files if you change the code yourself. I did not want to, and didn't use a docm file. Docm files have security warnings associated to them when emailed. So an auto updating macro is out of the question.
-Octopus Emoji is Celebrating
I want to know if this could be done.
I am building a data dictionary for our software system (school project), and I'm thinking of an automated way to do this. Basically I don't use much of Microsoft Word (2007), I only use it in documenting schools stuff, etc. I want to know if its possible to create/edit a Word document programmatically from a template.
The idea is, I will create a page on Word that contains an empty form that will be repeated on every page. For every data that I will input to my program, it will update the corresponding field in the form and skips to the next form.
The purpose of this, is to eliminate copy-paste methods (my habit) and to speed things up when doing the documentation.
Word automation, as suggested by others, will lead you to a world of hurt for two major reasons:
Office is not intended to be run unattended, so it can pop up message boxes at any time, and
It is (probably) not licensed to enable office functionality for computers which don't have it. If you generate a Word document on a web site using automation, you have to make sure that this functionality cannot be reached by computers which don't have office installed (unless they changed this rule in the last years).
I have used Aspose.Words, it costs a little, but it works well and is intended for this.
Not exactly sure what you really want, but creating word documents with c# shouldn't be any problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316384
If i find out your purpose correctly you need to visit this microsoft msdn link
Manipulating Word 2007 Files with OpenXML
Definitely possible. A fairly easy way of doing it using Office Automation. See this KB article for a basic sample: How to automate Microsoft Word to create a new document by using Visual C#
I think the main difference to that sample will be that you'll open your template and do SaveAs instead of creating a new document, but I can't remember exactly.
However, depending on your exact requirements, there might be better alternatives. For example, it's not recommended to do Office Automation on servers (including on webservers), so if that's needed you might want to look at something else.
You can use com interop of .net framework.
Understanding the Word Object Model from a .NET Developer's Perspective
Building COM Objects in C#
Using COM programming is not the best way as mentioned by erikkallen, I suggest using OPEN XML. It is really easy to use and your document generation operation will be very fast.
http://blog.goyello.com/2009/08/21/how-to-generate-open-xml-file-in-c-in-4-minutes/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205(v=office.12).aspx
I am in the estimating phase of a project, and one requirement is that my application will create draft emails (with attachments) in MS-Outlook, which the user can then review and send. The app is written in WPF.
The clients will have either Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. The files that need to be attached will already exist on the file system when the drafts are generated.
I have done some initial research, but would like to get some opinions from people who have first-hand experience.
Questions:
What tool would you use to
accomplish this?
Will there need to be separate code for Outlook 2003 vs. 2007?
In general, using whatever tools are recommended, is this a relatively straightforward problem to solve?
Thanks for any insight.
a c# wpf application should be able to do the job just fine, you just need to add the outlook libraries in your references and you can work with outlook directly from your WPF app.
I only write for 2003, but I do know that 2003 and 2007 use different libraries. There's probably a clever way check what version of outlook is being and use the methods from the correct library, but it will take some work to figure out.
It's relatively straight forward except for the security prompt you'll get if you send the email. But I suppose if they are going to have them review it first, you should be able to generate the email, open it in an outlook window for them to review, and have them click the send button.
Would you be able to use WebDAV and then simply create the message and drop it in the users' Drafts folder?
Basically, you'll end up using something like this product (or you can roll your own) to create and save the message. You might be able to find an open source solution.
I think there are a couple tools you could use here:
Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
total control over Outlook
version of Outlook may matter
Assuming you have Exchange, you could use WebDAV, Exchange's XML methodology
version of Outlook wouldn't matter here
Use the built in mailto: functionality
lots of results for using this to include attachments - Google Results
would work for email apps other than Outlook
this probably would be quickest solution, but the least control over the output
An Outlook Add-in is probably a good way to go for this application. The tool set you need is Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO). With the possible exception of the WPF requirement, this is pretty straightforward.
Be aware that the API's and the VSTO tools evolved between 2003 and 2007. You can potentially have a single code base but you will need to write for the least common denominator, 2003.
2003 and 2007 also have different Primary Interop Assemblies, the components that bridge the gap between your .NET code and the native code COM interfaces that Outlook has. This can be a challenge when it comes to building and installer for your add-in. If you want your add-in to install the PIA's, you need to detect the version of Office and install the appropriate version, or, more commonly, just build two different installers.
I've never tried to do WPF inside Outlook 2003. There may be some issues with it but I don't know.
I was wondering if there is another way to spell check a Windows app instead what I've been of using: "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word". I can't buy a spell checking add-on. I also cannot use open source and would like the spell check to be dynamic..any suggestions?
EDIT:
I have seen several similar questions, the problem is they all suggest using open source applications (which I would love) or Microsoft Word.
I am currently using Word to spell check and it slows my current application down and causes several glitches in my application. Word is not a clean solution so I'm really wanting to find some other way.. Is my only other option to recreate my app as a WPF app so I can take advantage of the SpellCheck Class?
If I were you I would download the data from the English Wiktionary and parse it to obtain a list of all English words (for instance). Then you could rather easily write at least a primitive spell-checker yourself. In fact, I use a parsed version of the English Wiktionary in my own mathematical application AlgoSim. If you'd like, I could send you the data file.
Update
I have now published a parsed word list at english.zip (942 kB, 383735 entries, zip). The data originates from the English Wiktionary, and as such, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
To obtain a list like this, you can either download all articles on Wiktionary as a huge XML file containing all Wiki- and HTML-formatted articles. This is then more or less trivial to parse. Alternatively, you can run a bot on the site. I got help to obtain a parsed file from a user at Wiktionary (I seem to have forgotten his name, though...), and this file (english.txt in english.zip) is a further processed version of the file I got.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.spellcheck.aspx
I use Aspell-win32, it's old but it's open source, and works as well or better than the Word spell check. Came here looking for a built in solution.