Saving Word 2007 Documents to PDF and XPS Formats

The 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF and 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as XPS allow a Microsoft Office Word 2007 to export and save documents in the PDF and XPS formats. This article illustrates how to use the Microsoft Word 12.0 Object Library to access the Word 2007 Document.ExportAsFixedFormat method to programmatically convert an existing Word 2007 document to either the PDF format or the XPS format.

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To illustrate how to programmatically save a Word 2007 document to either the PDF format or the XPS format, this section walks through five key steps.

To programmatically save a Word 2007 document to either the PDF format or the XPS format

1. Add a Reference to the Word 12.0 Object Library

First, add a reference to the Microsoft Word 12.0 Object Library to the Visual Studio project. To do this, right-click the project in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer and select the Add Reference… menu item. Select the COM tab in the Add Reference dialog box, then scroll down to the Microsoft Word 12.0 Object Library component, select it, and then click OK to add the reference.

Figure 1. Adding a Reference

2. Import the Word Interop Namespace

Next, import the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word namespace. This allows objects that are defined in that namespace to be referred to without having to specify the fully qualified namespace path. To import the namespace, add the following line to the top of the source file.

Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word

using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;

For Microsoft Visual Basic projects, you can also import the namespace by right-clicking the project in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer and selecting the Properties menu item. On the project properties page, select the References tab and then select the check box next to the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word entry in the list of imported namespaces.

3. Create an Instance of the Word ApplicationClass Object

To work with the Word 2007 object model, create an instance of the Word 2007 top-level ApplicationClass object and declare a variable to hold the reference to the document.

Dim wordApplication As ApplicationClass = New ApplicationClass()
Dim wordDocument As Document = Nothing

ApplicationClass wordApplication = new ApplicationClass();
Document wordDocument = null;

4. Declare Appropriate Variables

The following code blocks declare variables that help to make the parameters that are passed to methods used in the conversion code easier to read. The following variables are used with the Documents.Open method and ApplicationClass.Quit method.

Use the paramSourceDocPath variable to specify the path and filename of the Word 2007 document that is to be exported to either the PDF format or the XPS format.

Use the paramMissing variable when calling methods that accept optional parameters. Optional parameters are only optional when you use Microsoft Visual Basic. You must specify a value for optional parameters when you use Microsoft Visual C#. Using Type.Missing as the value for an optional parameter indicates that the parameter is not specified and that the method should use the parameter's default value.

Dim paramSourceDocPath As String = "C:\Temp\Test.docx"

object paramSourceDocPath = @"C:\Temp\Test.docx";
object paramMissing = Type.Missing;

The following variables are used with the Document.ExportAsFixedFormat method. The paramExportFormat variable is important because it is used to specify the format in which to export the document. The paramExportFormat variable is of the WdExportFormat type. It is an enumerated type which has two values, wdExportFormatXPS and wdExportFormatPDF. The following sample code sets the paramExportFormat variable to the WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatXPS value to export a document to the XPS format. To change the code to export a document in the PDF format, set the variable to the WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatPDF value. For more information on the ExportAsFixedFormat method and the parameters that it accepts, see Docment.ExportAsFixedFormat.

Dim paramExportFilePath As String = "C:\Temp\Test.xps"
Dim paramExportFormat As WdExportFormat = _
    WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatXPS
Dim paramOpenAfterExport As Boolean = False
Dim paramExportOptimizeFor As WdExportOptimizeFor = _
    WdExportOptimizeFor.wdExportOptimizeForPrint
Dim paramExportRange As WdExportRange = _
    WdExportRange.wdExportAllDocument
Dim paramStartPage As Int32 = 0
Dim paramEndPage As Int32 = 0
Dim paramExportItem As WdExportItem = _
    WdExportItem.wdExportDocumentContent
Dim paramIncludeDocProps As Boolean = True
Dim paramKeepIRM As Boolean = True
Dim paramCreateBookmarks As WdExportCreateBookmarks = _
    WdExportCreateBookmarks.wdExportCreateWordBookmarks
Dim paramDocStructureTags As Boolean = True
Dim paramBitmapMissingFonts As Boolean = True
Dim paramUseISO19005_1 As Boolean = False

string paramExportFilePath = @"C:\Temp\Test.xps";
WdExportFormat paramExportFormat = WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatXPS;
bool paramOpenAfterExport = false;
WdExportOptimizeFor paramExportOptimizeFor =
    WdExportOptimizeFor.wdExportOptimizeForPrint;
WdExportRange paramExportRange = WdExportRange.wdExportAllDocument;
int paramStartPage = 0;
int paramEndPage = 0;
WdExportItem paramExportItem = WdExportItem.wdExportDocumentContent;
bool paramIncludeDocProps = true;
bool paramKeepIRM = true;
WdExportCreateBookmarks paramCreateBookmarks = 
    WdExportCreateBookmarks.wdExportCreateWordBookmarks;
bool paramDocStructureTags = true;
bool paramBitmapMissingFonts = true;
bool paramUseISO19005_1 = false;

5. Implement the Conversion Code

Next add code that opens the source document, exports it to the specified format, and exits Word 2007. Making the call to the Document.ExportAsFixedFormat method throws an exception if the add-in for the format is not currently installed. To handle this situation, the conversion code is wrapped in a Try…Catch block. The code that exits Word 2007, which allows it to unload from memory, is located in a Finally block. The shutdown-related code closes the Word 2007 document, exits the Word 2007 application, releases references to the underlying Word 2007 COM objects, and makes calls to the .NET garbage collector. For more information about how to release COM objects when you use managed code, see Chapter 2: Basics of Office Interoperability (Part 2 of 3) from the book Microsoft .NET Development for Microsoft Office.

Try
    ' Open the source document.
    wordDocument = wordApplication.Documents.Open(paramSourceDocPath)

    ' Export it in the specified format.
    If Not wordDocument Is Nothing Then
        wordDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat(paramExportFilePath, _
            paramExportFormat, paramOpenAfterExport, _
            paramExportOptimizeFor, paramExportRange, paramStartPage, _
            paramEndPage, paramExportItem, paramIncludeDocProps, _
            paramKeepIRM, paramCreateBookmarks, _
            paramDocStructureTags, paramBitmapMissingFonts, _
            paramUseISO19005_1)
    End If
Catch ex As Exception
    ' Respond to the error
Finally
    ' Close and release the Document object.
    If Not wordDocument Is Nothing Then
        wordDocument.Close(False)
        wordDocument = Nothing
    End If

    ' Quit Word and release the ApplicationClass object.
    If Not wordApplication Is Nothing Then
        wordApplication.Quit()
        wordApplication = nothing
    End If

    GC.Collect()
    GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers()
    GC.Collect()
    GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers()
End Try

try
{
    // Open the source document.
    wordDocument = wordApplication.Documents.Open(
        ref paramSourceDocPath, ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
        ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
        ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
        ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
        ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
        ref paramMissing);

    // Export it in the specified format.
    if (wordDocument != null)
        wordDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat(paramExportFilePath,
            paramExportFormat, paramOpenAfterExport, 
            paramExportOptimizeFor, paramExportRange, paramStartPage,
            paramEndPage, paramExportItem, paramIncludeDocProps, 
            paramKeepIRM, paramCreateBookmarks, paramDocStructureTags, 
            paramBitmapMissingFonts, paramUseISO19005_1,
            ref paramMissing);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Respond to the error
}
finally
{
    // Close and release the Document object.
    if (wordDocument != null)
    {
        wordDocument.Close(ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
            ref paramMissing);
        wordDocument = null;
    }

    // Quit Word and release the ApplicationClass object.
    if (wordApplication != null)
    {
        wordApplication.Quit(ref paramMissing, ref paramMissing,
            ref paramMissing);
        wordApplication = null;
    }
    
    GC.Collect();
    GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
    GC.Collect();
    GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
}

There are a number of scenarios in which you may want to develop a Microsoft Office business application that requires both dynamic and static views of the same document. In Word 2007 you can use the 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF and 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as XPS to save a Word 2007 document as either a PDF document or an XPS document.

The key object that is used to save a Word 2007 document in either the PDF format or the XPS format is the Document object. The Document object has a method called Document.ExportAsFixedFormat, which has a number of key parameters that it accepts to save the target document in the desired format. This article specifically explores how to use the Documents.Open method and Document.ExportAsFixedFormat method to programmatically save a Word 2007 document as either a PDF document or an XPS document.

To programmatically save a Word 2007 document as either a PDF document or an XPS document

Note

The preceding example code used the Type.Missing object to specify that an optional parameter was not provided and that the default parameter value should be used. To change the behavior to use something other than the default parameter types and values, specify the appropriate parameter types and values. For more information about the Documents.Open method and Document.ExportAsFixedFormat method and the parameters that they accept, see the Word 2007 Object Model Reference.

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• Word Developer Portal

• Office Developer Center on MSDN

• Understanding Optional Parameters in COM Interop

• Document.ExportAsFixedFormat Method