How do I convert Word files to PDF programmatically

Question

I have found several open-source freeware programs that allow you to convert  doc files to  pdf files  but they re all of the application printer driver variety  with no SDK attached   I have found several programs that do have an SDK allowing you to convert  doc files to  pdf files  but they re all of the proprietary type   2 000 a license or thereabouts   Does anyone know of any clean  inexpensive  preferably free  programmatic solution to my problem  using C  or VB NET   Thanks

User · Answer

I went through the Word to PDF pain when someone dumped me with 10000 word files to convert to PDF. Now I did it in C# and used Word interop but it was slow and crashed if I tried to use PC at all.. very frustrating.

This lead me to discovering I could dump interops and their slowness..... for Excel I use (EPPLUS) and then I discovered that you can get a free tool called Spire that allows converting to PDF... with limitations!

http://www.e-iceblue.com/Introduce/free-doc-component.html#.VtAg4PmLRhE

User · Answer

Easy code and solution using Microsoft Office Interop Word to converd WORD in PDF  using Word   Microsoft Office Interop Word   private void convertDOCtoPDF        object misValue   System Reflection Missing Value    String  PATH APP PDF     c     MY WORD DOCUMENT pdf     var WORD   new Word Application       Word Document doc     WORD Documents Open   c     MY WORD DOCUMENT docx      doc Activate       doc SaveAs2  PATH APP PDF  Word WdSaveFormat wdFormatPDF  misValue  misValue  misValue     misValue  misValue  misValue  misValue  misValue  misValue  misValue      doc Close      WORD Quit        releaseObject doc     releaseObject WORD        Add this procedure to release memory   private void releaseObject object obj      try           System Runtime InteropServices Marshal ReleaseComObject obj         obj   null        catch  Exception ex              TODO       finally          GC Collect

User · Answer

Just wanted to add that I used Microsoft Interop libraries  specifically ExportAsFixedFormat function which I did not see used in this thread   using Microsoft Office Interop Word  using System Runtime InteropServices  using System IO  using Microsoft Office Core   Application app   public string CreatePDF string path  string exportDir        Application app   new Application        app DisplayAlerts   WdAlertLevel wdAlertsNone      app Visible   true       var objPresSet   app Documents      var objPres   objPresSet Open path  MsoTriState msoTrue  MsoTriState msoTrue  MsoTriState msoFalse        var pdfFileName   Path ChangeExtension path    pdf        var pdfPath   Path Combine exportDir  pdfFileName        try               objPres ExportAsFixedFormat              pdfPath              WdExportFormat wdExportFormatPDF              false              WdExportOptimizeFor wdExportOptimizeForPrint              WdExportRange wdExportAllDocument                      catch               pdfPath   null            finally               objPres Close              return pdfPath

User · Answer

Seems to be some relevent info here   Converting MS Word Documents to PDF in ASP NET  Also  with Office 2007 having publish to PDF functionality  I guess you could use office automation to open the   DOC file in Word 2007 and Save as PDF   I m not too keen on office automation as it s slow and prone to hanging  but just throwing that out there

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Use a foreach loop instead of a for loop - it solved my problem   int j   0  foreach  Microsoft Office Interop Word Page p in pane Pages        var bits   p EnhMetaFileBits      var target   path1  j ToString       image doc       try               using  var ms   new MemoryStream  byte    bits                          var image   System Drawing Image FromStream ms               var pngTarget   Path ChangeExtension target   png                image Save pngTarget  System Drawing Imaging ImageFormat Png                       catch  System Exception ex                MessageBox Show ex Message               j        Here is a modification of a program that worked for me   It uses Word 2007 with the Save As PDF add-in installed   It searches a directory for  doc files  opens them in Word and then saves them as a PDF   Note that you ll need to add a reference to Microsoft Office Interop Word to the solution   using Microsoft Office Interop Word  using System  using System Collections Generic  using System IO  using System Linq  using System Text           Create a new Microsoft Word application object Microsoft Office Interop Word Application word   new Microsoft Office Interop Word Application        C  doesn t have optional arguments so we ll need a dummy value object oMissing   System Reflection Missing Value      Get list of Word files in specified directory DirectoryInfo dirInfo   new DirectoryInfo     server folder    FileInfo   wordFiles   dirInfo GetFiles    doc     word Visible   false  word ScreenUpdating   false   foreach  FileInfo wordFile in wordFiles           Cast as Object for word Open method     Object filename    Object wordFile FullName          Use the dummy value as a placeholder for optional arguments     Document doc   word Documents Open ref filename  ref oMissing          ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing          ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing          ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing       doc Activate         object outputFileName   wordFile FullName Replace   doc     pdf        object fileFormat   WdSaveFormat wdFormatPDF          Save document into PDF Format     doc SaveAs ref outputFileName          ref fileFormat  ref oMissing  ref oMissing          ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing          ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing          ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing           Close the Word document  but leave the Word application open         doc has to be cast to type  Document so that it will find the        correct Close method                      object saveChanges   WdSaveOptions wdDoNotSaveChanges         Document doc  Close ref saveChanges  ref oMissing  ref oMissing       doc   null        word has to be cast to type  Application so that it will find    the correct Quit method     Application word  Quit ref oMissing  ref oMissing  ref oMissing   word   null

User · Answer

There s an entire discussion of libraries for converting Word to PDF on Joel s discussion forums   Some suggestions from the thread    Aspose pdfcreator PDFsharp

User · Answer

To sum it up for vb net users  the free option  must have office installed    Microsoft office assembies download    pia for office 2010  pia for office 2007 Add reference to Microsoft Office Interop Word Application Add using or import  vb net  statement to Microsoft Office Interop Word Application   VB NET example           Dim word As Application   New Application           Dim doc As Document   word Documents Open  c  document docx           doc Activate           doc SaveAs2  c  document pdf   WdSaveFormat wdFormatPDF          doc Close

User · Answer

PDFCreator has a COM component  callable from  NET or VBScript  samples included in the download     But  it seems to me that a printer is just what you need - just mix that with Word s automation  and you should be good to go

User · Answer

Microsoft PDF add-in for word seems to be the best solution for now but you should take into consideration that it does not convert all word documents correctly to pdf and in some cases you will see huge difference between the word and the output pdf  Unfortunately I couldn t find any api that would convert all word documents correctly  The only solution I found to ensure the conversion was 100  correct was by converting the documents through a printer driver  The downside is that documents are queued and converted one by one  but you can be sure the resulted pdf is exactly the same as word document layout  I personally preferred using UDC  Universal document converter  and installed Foxit Reader free version  on server too then printed the documents by starting a  Process  and setting its Verb property to  print   You can also use FileSystemWatcher to set a signal when the conversion has completed

[c#] How do I convert Word files to PDF programmatically?

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