What Is OfficeWriter?

SoftArtisans OfficeWriter unites ExcelWriter and WordWriter, two high-performance .NET assemblies that generate Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word files on a Web server. With OfficeWriter, a few simple lines of code generate editable presentation-quality reports that can be saved or viewed instantly by thousands of concurrent users.

The reports generated by OfficeWriter are in native Microsoft Word and Excel formats (.doc and .xls). OfficeWriter offers high-speed performance and, since Microsoft Office is not required on the Web server running WordWriter and ExcelWriter, your Web applications have licensing flexibility and ease of deployment. See why Microsoft recommends keeping Office off the server.

Code-Based or Template-Driven Development

Using OfficeWriter, you can generate a new Word or Excel file from an existing file, an OfficeWriter template, or from code alone:

• Using a Template: Maximum Speed

  To generate reports with the greatest speed:

  1. In Microsoft Word or Excel, create a template file containing fields that will bind to one or more data sources.
  2. In code, use WordWriter or ExcelWriter to open the template, set data sources, populate fields, and save the file, stream it to the client, or both.
  
  

• Using an Existing File: Increased Flexibility

  When you modify an existing Word or Excel file using OfficeWriter code, all Office features and functionality are preserved in the newly generated report. You can easily enhance reports, at runtime, with OfficeWriter's extensive design capabilities.

• Pure Coding: Completely Dynamic

  This dynamic approach provides total control, at runtime, of every element in the document.

SQL Server Reporting Services Integration

OfficeWriter enhances Reporting Services by allowing you to design in Excel and Word (or use existing Excel and Word files as templates) and deliver in real, native Excel and Word. Data fields - Merge fields (in Word) or data markers (in Excel) - in the document define where values from the database will be placed. These fields are inserted from Excel or Word using the OfficeWriter Designer. After you design a report template, OfficeWriterRS uploads the template to a Reporting Services server and populates it with data supplied by Reporting Services.

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OfficeWriter Editions

• OfficeWriter Enterprise Edition (OfficeWriter EE) includes WordWriter EE and ExcelWriter EE. OfficeWriter EE is for enterprise-class Web applications and includes support for both code-based and template-driven development, and Reporting Services integration.
  
  
• OfficeWriter Standard Edition (OfficeWriter SE) includes WordWriter SE and ExcelWriter SE. OfficeWriter SE supports template-driven development and limited Reporting Services integration.
  
  

WordWriter and ExcelWriter may be purchased separately.

Development Editions

• OfficeWriter Enterprise Developer offers the same functionality as OfficeWriter EE, but can generate only one report at a time, which is typical of the development environment. Other restrictions may apply.
  
  
• OfficeWriter Standard Developer offers the same functionality as OfficeWriter SE  but can generate only one report at a time, which is typical of the development environment. Other restrictions may apply.
  
  

Compare OfficeWriter Editions

Feature Enterprise Editions Standard Editions Template-Driven Development Pure Code-based Development --- Reporting Services Integration Limited OfficeWriter Designer OfficeWriter Renderer Support for Reporting Services formulas in Excel and Word reports: add aggregate functions, report parameters and global variables to report template --- Amount of data per report Unlimited Unlimited

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New in Version 3.9.1

Excel Reporting

• New features
  • 64-bit support
  • IIS 7.0 support
  • Faster algorithm for style optimization in ExcelApplication
  • Improved performance when opening existing files with ExcelApplication
  • Improved performance when setting column width
  • Reduced memory usage by ExcelTemplate
  • Optimized performance of ExcelApplication’s formula parser. Formulas can now be inserted up to 8 times faster.
  • Blank cell optimizations produce up to 400% improvement in speed and memory usage when using ExcelTemplate together with ExcelApplication
  • Improved autofit algorithm
  • New methods added to assist with autofitting merged cells: GetTextHeight and GetTextWidth
  • New InsertColumns and InsertRows methods for bulk insertion of columns/rows
  
  
• Issues resolved
  • Chart data range in ExcelWriter-generated spreadsheet changed when another MS Excel file was open. Now all chart data ranges are created with absolute rather than relative references.
  • ExcelApplication .NET unable to open certain files created by COM version of ExcelWriter.
  • Issue with ExcelApplication COM version when using Style.Number and Cells.MergeCells in combination.
  • Issue with Daylight Savings Time
  • ExcelApplication unable to open spreadsheet generated by SSRS default Excel renderer.
  • Calling the DeleteColumn method on a worksheet with a horizontal freeze pane caused Excel to crash when opening the generated file.
  • ColumnProperties.AutoFitWidth threw exception on column containing formula with currency formatting
  • Various issues with CopyPaste method
    • Exception thrown if copied Area has formula referencing another workbook
    • Currency formatting not copied correctly
    • error "System.Exception: Index: 65535, Size: 1" when copying certain files
    • Some borders missing from copied Area
    • Some cells had unintended bold formatting after copying from another workbook
    • Error "Failed to get style xf index" when calling CopyPaste many times
  • Unhandled exception in ExcelApplication COM caused message box
  • Importing certain types of JPGs caused exception "Index was outside the bounds of the array"
  • File corruption when generating encrypted workbooks with Pivot Tables
  • ExcelApplication.Open threw exception "Error parsing Excel stream: unexpected token: PROTECT" with certain files
  • Opening and saving certain Excelwriter COM-generated spreadsheets with ExcelWriter .NET caused file corruption.
  • Numbers exceeding Excel's limit of 15 digits were being rounded up rather than truncated. ExcelWriter's behavior now matches MS Excel's.
  • "Unsupported Function" error when opening spreadsheet with DateDif function.
  • Excel crashed when changing font in OfficeWriter-generated spreadsheet containing character runs
  • CopySheet did not copy local named ranges correctly (this also affected print titles)
  • Error "Failed to get Style inteface; Failed to create new CellStyleModel" when calling ApplyStyle method
  • Error "Value was either too large or too small for a Decimal" when autofitting an area containg NaN double values
  • Creating spreadsheet with over 40 worksheets and applying many styles caused error "Failed to get Style interface"
  • In version 6.8.1, SetCellDataSource converted certain strings to numbers
  • ColumnProperties.AutoFitWidth threw exception when column contained formulas with currency formatting
  • Calling Worksheet.DeleteColumn()" on a worksheet with freezepanes caused Excel to crash when opening output file
  • Error accessing cell value in spreadsheet generated by SSRS generic Excel renderer
  • Password-protected workbook generated by ExcelWriter version 6.8.1 did not prompt user for password when opened
  • Errors calling ApplyStyle or AutoFitWidth on large areas
  • PlotArea and Legend were not centered in generated file
  
  

Word Reporting

• New features
  • 64-bit support
  • IIS 7.0 support
  • HtmlToWord - New open source project for importing HTML-formatted text into WordWriter documents
  • Improved generation of mailing labels with new EnableNextFields property
  • New SetMailMerge method provides an additional mail merge option that more closely matches MS Word mail merge functionality. SetMailMerge treats the entire page as a repeat block without requiring the addition of bookmarks, allowing reuse of existing MS Word mail merge templates.
  
  
• Issues resolved
  • Document properties NumCharacters, NumWords and NumParagraphs incorrectly returned 0.
  • Table.AddRows and Table.InsertRows shifted cells to the right
  • Row inserted in nested table had incorrect formatting
  • Inserting tables into table cells sometimes caused corrupt documents
  • Table inserted in table cell was too wide
  • Lists and paragraphs inserted into existing table cells sometimes resulted in incorrect formatting or corrupted files
  • Some elements inserted after a table appeared as if inside a table cell.
  • Adding a watermark to a document caused corruption of character formatting and tables
  • Documents created with certain fonts threw an exception. WordWriter now supports more font types
  • Calling hyperlink.GetUrlString() on an existing hyperlink in a Word document caused an exception
  • Adding a watermark caused corruption of character formatting and tables
  • Adding watermark to certain files caused NullPointerException
  • Footnotes were not preserved when copying one document into another
  • Header and footer missing after opening and saving a document with an image in the header with WordApplication
  • Daylight Savings Time issue with .NET 2.0 on Windows 2003
  
  

Reporting Services Integration

• New features
  • 64-bit support
  • Support for SQL Server 2008 CTP6. The OfficeWriter Designer will work with any version of SQL Server up to the most recent CTP of SQL Server 2008 (CTP6 - February 2008). To get the special builds of the OfficeWriter renderers for CTP6, contact SoftArtisans.
  • Ability to insert images with Word designer
  
  
• Issues resolved
  • Shared DataSources are now preserved when publishing report from OfficeWriter Designer.
  • If a user added and then removed a bookmark with the OfficeWriter Designer Word Add-In, a link to the Selection Query data source was left in the RDL, causing a runtime error "The following bookmark can't be found in the template."
  • Values were inserted as strings. The OfficeWriter renderers now access the original value in order to preserve the underlying data type.
  
  

New in Version 3.8.1

Excel Reporting

• New features
  • Copy and paste an area of cells from one worksheet into another with the new CopyPaste method. Current version can copy values, formatting, formulas, merged cells and comments. Additional features will be added in future versions.
  • Check if a given cell is merged with the new IsMerged property of the Cell object.
  • Unmerge cells with the new Unmerge method on the Cell object.
  • Get the parent workbook of a given worksheet with the new Workbook property of the Worksheet object.
  
  
• Issues resolved
  • Autofilters not positioned correctly after changing column width.
  • ExcelApplication threw exception: Cannot read past end of data buffer when attempting to open spreadsheet created with POI containing named ranges.
  • ExcelApplication threw exception: Error parsing Excel stream: unexpected token when attempting to open a particular file.
  • Formatting applied programmatically to an empty cell got lost when value entered by end-user.
  • Performance issue in .NET 2.0 when importing doubles and dates with ExcelTemplate object.
  • Certain spreadsheets generated with ExcelApplication did not open properly in OpenOffice and StarOffice.
  • Excel 2000 crashed when hitting left navigation arrow on spreadsheet which was generated by setting any worksheet’s visibility to hidden before a call to Worksheet.Select().
  • ExcelApplication .NET failed to open workbook generated by ExcelApplication COM.
  • AutoFitWidth threw an InvalidOperationException in a multi-threaded environment.
  • Added ability to open and manipulate spreadsheets generated by Reporting Services "out of the box" Excel export option.
  • Chart in ExcelWriter-generated workbook altered when another MS Excel file is open on the client machine.
  • Embedded xls files were not preserved when opening spreadsheet with ExcelApplication.
  • Accessing PopulatedCells property caused file size to increase
  
  

Word Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • In .NET 2.0, attempting to insert a JPG with the WordTemplate object failed in with the error: Mismatching types for source and destination arrays.
  • In .NET 2.0, performance problems when reading text from a document with the WordApplication object.
  • InsertTextAfter method didn’t work properly for new rows created with Table.InsertRows.
  • Merge field syntax error (‘Error parsing datamarker) received even though the merge field was already corrected. Caused by hidden change information stored in the Word file. WordTemplate now ignores mergefield strings which cannot be parsed.
  • Improved handling of ordinal modifier in merge fields.
  • MS Word 2000 threw error when cursor hovered over button in document generated by WordTemplate.
  • IndexOutOfBoundsException when merging certain documents with WordApplication.
  • Default style of generated document was Header instead of Normal.
  • NumColumns property did not handle tables whose rows contain variable numbers of columns. Removed property Table.NumColumns and replaced it with a method that takes the row as a parameter - Table.GetNumColumns(row). Note: This causes a backwards compatability issue between 3.8.1 and previous versions. Learn more: http://support.softartisans.com/kbview.aspx?ID=1232
  
  

New in Version 3.7.1

Excel Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • Excel throws "Data may have been lost" error when opening file generated by ExcelApplication. Caused by incorrect handling of shared formulas when opening existing spreadsheet
  • Images in custom headers and footers not preserved
  • Chart DataTable overlapped the chart area
  • Excel throws "Method 'Range' of object '_Global' failed" error when opening certain spreadsheet which was processed by both the ExcelTemplate and ExcelApplication objects.
  • "Exception during hydration" error when opening certain file created in Excel 2007.
  • Some formatting lost when using ApplyStyle method on very large areas of cells
  • ExcelApplication flipped cell foreground and background colors
  • Error opening spreadsheet generated by POI library which did not conform to Excel specification
  • ExcelTemplate did not stretch data validation region correctly
  • Charts created with ExcelApplication varied in size depending on number of series added
  • CreateHyperlink method did not work properly in version 6.6.1
  
  
• New features
  • Bulk row insertion and deletion are now possible with new InsertRows and DeleteRows methods. Dramatically improves performance over row-by-row insertion and deletion.
  • Added properties for setting the position of a chart’s Data Table: X, Y, Width, and Height
  • Added IgnoreNulls property to the DataImportProperties object. If set to true, NULL values in the data set are ignored and formulas and values in the input file will not be overwritten
  • Added support for ADOMD data reader as a data source
  
  

Word Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • Rows not lined up correctly in tables inserted with WordApplication object
  • Mergefield.GetFieldName threw exception or did not return correct merge field name
  • WordApplication.Open did not explicitly release the handle on the input stream
  • Error opening document containing text boxes
  • Corrupt output file generated from certain complex template containing many images
  • WordTemplate did not preserve "ordinal" formatting modifier of merge fields
  • SetWatermark didn’t work properly in version 3.6.1
  
  

Reporting Services Integration

• Issues resolved
  • OfficeWriter Designer installer did not detect Office 2007
  • Error when viewing report created by OfficeWriter Designer in Office 2007
  • Publish button did not work after template converted to Office 2007
  
  

New in Version 3.6.1

Excel Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • STDEV formula did not accept cell ranges
  • Certain ValueAxis properties could not be read or written
  • Conditional formatting added through the API had no effect when running .NET 2.0
  • Unable to read or write the Text or Href properties of an existing Hyperlink
  • Data shifted incorrectly when deleting column in spreadsheet with frozen pane
  • Frozen pane shifted incorrectly when deleting or inserting rows/columns to the right or above the frozen pane
  • Error on ExcelApplication.Open() with certain spreadsheets: "Exception during hydration; Error parsing MsoDrawing stream"
  • Error on ExcelApplication.Open() with certain spreadsheets: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object"
  • Corrupt output file when processing certain spreadsheets with ExcelApplication
  • Error "Index not supported for the type Row [or Column] Resized" when setting RowProperties or ColumnProperties
  • Out of memory error when processing template created with Japanese Excel
  • Hyperlink referencing the same workbook was not being preserved correctly
  • Error "Postion X out of range; must be 0 <= position < X" When copying worksheet multiple times
  • Named range offset incorrect when inserting/deleting rows/columns
  • Image protection lost when opening and saving a spreadsheet with ExcelWriter COM
  • Incorrect version number in type library description for ExcelWriter COM
  • Buffer overrun in ExcelWriter COM'
  • ExcelApplication .NET failed to open certain spreadsheets which were generated by ExcelWriter COM
  
  
• New features
  • Charts: CategoryAxis can now take a date type - new enum, TimeUnit.
  • Formulas: Added support for MEDIAN function
  • Added AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute to the ExcelWriter .NET assembly so that it can be called from partially trusted code
  
  

Word Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • WordTemplate generated incorrectly formatted output file when processing a complex template with multiple sections
  • Unable to access child elements of Field and MergeField elements
  • Incorrect version number in type library description for WordWriter COM
  
  
• New features
  • Added AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute to the WordWriter .NET assembly so that it can be called from partially trusted code
  
  

Reporting Services Integration

• Issues resolved
  • Failure to detect Reporting Services installation
  
  

New in Version 3.5.4

Excel Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • Unicode strings in page header/footer were not handled properly, causing error: "Page footer exceeds 124 characters"
  • Error: "Cannot read past end of data buffer." when opening spreadsheet containing data validation with error alert
  • Hyperlinked area not stretched when row/column inserted
  • Error "Unsupported error string" when reading certain cell values
  • Formulas with references to named ranges were corrupted when opening/saving workbook
  • Error opening workbook with formulas containing arrays of values
  • Freeze Panes not updated when row/column inserted
  • Deleting worksheets, columns or rows in workbook containing named ranges caused error: "Postion n out of range; must be 0 <= position < n"
  
  

Word Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • SetPageOrientation property did not work correctly
  • Formatting was not applied properly to non-ascii characters
  • Files created from templates containing certain Word 2003 features could be opened but not saved in Microsoft Word
  • MergeField.GetFieldName() generated error or returned extra characters
  • WordTemplate.Save streaming option failed in ASP on machine with .NET 2.0 installed
  
  

New in Version 3.5.3

Excel Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • Workbook.ReadOnly property had no effect
  • File Corruption issue introduced in 6.5 release of ExcelApplication COM (SAXLW6COM.dll)
  • Adding hyperlinks with CreateHyperlink() caused virtual memory problem on client machine
  • Hyperlinks not inserted correctly into newly created Worksheets
  • Problem passing spreadsheets between ExcelApplication and ExcelTemplate: Dynamically-created Worksheets not bound to data.
  • Error parsing formula: "=MOD(ROW(),2)=0"
  • Performance problem reintroduced in 3.5.2 when processing spreadsheets with many named ranges
  • Certain decimal values were truncated when reading from an existing spreadsheet using Cell.Value
  • NullPointerException error when opening certain spreadsheets with ExcelApplication
  • Error opening spreadsheets containing references to external Workbooks
  
  

New in Version 3.5.2

Excel Reporting

• Issues resolved
  • Error opening certain spreadsheets: "Unable to parse formula: Column references must be between 1 and 256 and cannot loop"
  • SeriesCollection.CreateSeries(Area) throws parse error in r1c1 mode
  • Area.GetDimensions() unaffected by Workbook.UseRCFormulaNotation property
  • ExcelTemplate throws runtime error when template contains conditional formatting.
  • ExcelApplication throws exception when opening a file with multiple passwords
  • Formulas with local names corrupted when worksheets deleted with ExcelApplication
  • Inconsistent default values when setting only one dimension using FitToPagesWide and FitToPagesTall properties
  • Named ranges not updated by row/column insertion or deletion
  
  

Word Reporting

• Changed method signatures for SetDataSource and SetRepeatBlock
  • Removed overloads for IEnumerable
  • Added overloads for IEnumerator and ICollections
  
  

SQL Server Reporting Services Integration

• Issues resolved
  • Automatic installation of Reporting Services Integration fails for SQL Server 2000
  • Publishing of "SoftArtisans" samples aborts on attempt to install "Excel-Product Sales 2005"
  
  

New in Version 3.5.1

Excel Reporting

• Conditional Formatting
  • Use ExcelApplication's ConditionalFormat object to create and apply conditional formats to workbook cells.
  
  
• Data Validation
  • Define rules for validating data entered in cells with ExcelApplication's DataValidation object.
  
  
• R1C1 Cell References
  • Instruct Excel to use R1C1-style cell references by setting the property Workbook.UseRCFormulaNotation.
  • Use R1C1 references in formulas in your ExcelWriter code (e.g. Area a = ws.CreateArea("=R1C1:R10C7");).
  
  
• Collections as Data Sources
  • Use ExcelTemplate's new data source methods to assign collections as data sources for template data markers. The new methods are overloads of SetRowDataSource and SetColumnDataSource.
  
  
• Preserve and Convert Data Marker Modifiers
  • Force Excel to insert a string as a string when importing a value to a template data marker.
  • Force Excel to try to convert a string to a number when importing a value to a template data marker.
  
  
• Issues resolved
  • Error generated when setting CenterHeader and CenterFooter
  • Error when calling MergeCells() multiple times after setting a border
  • Error when calling Area.AutoFitWidth()
  • Could not change font color on Y-Axis of a chart
  • Formula parser does not handle escaped single quotes correctly
  • (ExcelWriter COM only) Setting Range.Value caused loss of formatting in other parts of a worksheet
  • Named Range not updated when deleting rows
  • Border not set properly for merged area
  • Worksheet.InsertColumn causes IO exception
  
  

Word Reporting

• Watermarks
  • Add watermarks to your Word documents with WordApplication's Watermark object.
  
  
• Passing WordTemplate to WordApplication
  • Open and populate a template document with WordTemplate and pass the document to WordApplication, using the method WordApplication.Open(WordTemplate template).
  
  
• Collections as Data Sources
  • Use WordTemplate's new data source methods to assign collections as data sources for template merge fields. The new methods are overloads of SetDataSource and SetRepeatBlock.
  
  
• Search and Replace
  • Use Element.SearchAndReplace and Element.Search to find and replace strings in your document.
  
  
• Improved Table Object
  • Add, insert, and delete table rows and columns with the Table object's new methods.
  
  
• Issues resolved
  • StringIndexOutOfBoundsException when retrieving text
  • Text with accents not picking up font when inserted using InsertTextAfter()
  • Deleting outer bookmarks caused error
  
  

SQL Server Reporting Services Integration

• Support for SQL Server and Reporting Services 2005

New in Version 3.0.6

• New: CategoryAxis.TextRotationAngle allows you to set the rotation angle of text on a chart's category axis.
• New: Formula support for positive unary operator.
• Improved: ExcelTemplate performance.
• Fixed: Setting the color of a chart's major and minor gridlines had no effect.
• Fixed: Setting chart data label fonts had no effect.
• Fixed: Chart references were not updated after Worksheets.CopySheet.
• Fixed: Worksheet-level named ranges were corrupted after Worksheets.CopySheet.
• Fixed: Worksheet-level named ranges were not updated when a worksheet was deleted.
• Fixed: SalesCommission code sample did not work properly.
• Fixed: Calling ApplyStyle with a named style set cell fill color to black.
• Fixed: Comment object behavior.
• Fixed: Worksheet-level named ranges disappeared in files opened and saved with ExcelApplication.
• Fixed: Formulas with quoted worksheet names were truncated.
• Fixed: INDEX and MATCH functions handled improperly.
• Fixed: Performance issue when manipulating spreadsheets with many named ranges.
• Fixed: Web queries disappeared from files opened with ExcelApplication.
• Fixed: Deleting rows from adjacent ranges produced a Range with a negative number of rows.
• Fixed: In some cases, ExcelTemplate failed to preserve conditional formatting.
• Fixed: An error occured when saving a workbook after using ApplyStyle.

• Fixed: Failure to create an instance of WordTemplate in ASP.
• Fixed: In some cases, retrieving a merge field name with MergeField.FieldName produced an error.
• Fixed: Attempting to retrieve a non-existent bookmark caused errors.
• Fixed: An error occurred when opening using WordTemplate to open a document with deleted sections.
• Fixed: Could not create SoftArtisans.WordTemplate in ASP

New in Version 3.0.5

• The ApplyStyle method can now be used to update user-defined styles in a saved workbook, as well as styles defined through the ExcelWriter API.
• New ExcelTemplate.SetRowDataSource methods allow you to use a DataView, DataSet, or DataTable as a data source for a row.
• A merged cell that contains data markers will be repeated - rather than stretched - when the data markers are populated.
• Fixed: Page breaks were not pushed down by ExcelTemplate object.
• Fixed: Named objects and ranges did not observe grid events. For example, when a row or column was inserted or deleted, named ranges were not updated to reflect the grid change.
• Fixed: The method Worksheets.CopySheet did not work correctly.
• Fixed: An error occurred when using named ranges in formulas.
• Fixed: Complex formulas threw a formula parser exception.
• Fixed: Named ranges were not indexed correctly.
• Fixed: When PivotTables created with ExcelWriter/COM were opened in Excel 2000, page field drop-downs were missing and images were placed incorrectly.
• Fixed: File size optimization issue with ExcelApplication.