C# Open Word Document

How to Open Word Documents Collection in C#

1. Create a Console Application in Visual Studio
2. Install IronWord C# DOCX library
3. Open Word document using WordDocument class
4. Loop through each paragraph using the Paragraph class
5. Run TextRuns on each Paragraph
6. Display the contents or Save with SaveAs method

IronWord - The C# DOCX Library

IronWord is a feature-rich C# Word DOCX library developed by Iron Software. It offers a user-friendly API that empowers developers to work with Word documents in their .NET applications with ease. Whether you're creating new Word documents, editing existing ones, or extracting content, IronWord provides a comprehensive set of tools to streamline the process.

Feature Set

Prerequisites

Before diving into the world of IronWord, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

• Visual Studio: Ensure you have a working installation of Visual Studio, a popular integrated development environment for .NET development. You can download it from here.
• IronWord: You need to download the library to use its features. You can download NuGet package directly from here.

Setting Up the Environment

To begin, open Visual Studio, and you'll see the welcome screen.

using IronWord;

using IronWord;

Steps to Open a Word Document and Read Contents

Now that our project is set up, follow these steps to open a Word document and read its contents using IronWord:

1. Load an Existing Document:

// Load an existing Word document file
WordDocument doc = new WordDocument("existing_document.docx");

// Load an existing Word document file
WordDocument doc = new WordDocument("existing_document.docx");

In this step, we create an instance of the WordDocument class from the IronWord library. We use the constructor that takes the path to an existing input Word document (existing_document.docx). This initializes the doc object, representing the loaded Word document from the input file.

Input File:

2. Read and Manipulate Content:

The following code helps in reading the text content from the opened document file:

// Access paragraphs and text runs
foreach (Paragraph paragraph in doc.Paragraphs)
{
    foreach (TextRun textRun in paragraph.TextRuns)
    {
        // Access the text content of each text run
        string content = textRun.Text;
        // Display content on the console
        Console.WriteLine(content);
    }
}

// Access paragraphs and text runs
foreach (Paragraph paragraph in doc.Paragraphs)
{
    foreach (TextRun textRun in paragraph.TextRuns)
    {
        // Access the text content of each text run
        string content = textRun.Text;
        // Display content on the console
        Console.WriteLine(content);
    }
}

Here, we iterate through the paragraphs and text runs within the loaded Word document (doc). The foreach loop allows us to traverse each paragraph, and nested within it, each text run. For each textRun, we can access the text content using textRun.Text. This is the point where you can perform any desired manipulations, such as extracting information or modifying the text content programmatically.

3. Displaying Contents and Output:

// Display contents
Console.WriteLine(content);

// Display contents
Console.WriteLine(content);

In the second foreach loop of the previous step, we are displaying the visible word contents on the console output screen. We can also save some part of the opened document as a new document:

// Method to save changes to the document
doc.SaveAs("modified_document.docx");

// Method to save changes to the document
doc.SaveAs("modified_document.docx");

The complete program code goes as follows:

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

namespace IronWordExample
{
    // Main program class
    class Program
    {
        // Main method - Entry point of the application
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Load existing Word doc file
            WordDocument doc = new WordDocument("existing_document.docx");

            // Access paragraphs and text runs
            foreach (Paragraph paragraph in doc.Paragraphs)
            {
                foreach (TextRun textRun in paragraph.TextRuns)
                {
                    // Access text content
                    string content = textRun.Text;
                    // Display Contents
                    Console.WriteLine(content);
                }
            }

            // Save changes to the document
            doc.SaveAs("modified_document.docx");
        }
    }
}

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

namespace IronWordExample
{
    // Main program class
    class Program
    {
        // Main method - Entry point of the application
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Load existing Word doc file
            WordDocument doc = new WordDocument("existing_document.docx");

            // Access paragraphs and text runs
            foreach (Paragraph paragraph in doc.Paragraphs)
            {
                foreach (TextRun textRun in paragraph.TextRuns)
                {
                    // Access text content
                    string content = textRun.Text;
                    // Display Contents
                    Console.WriteLine(content);
                }
            }

            // Save changes to the document
            doc.SaveAs("modified_document.docx");
        }
    }
}

To explore more functionalities IronWord can perform, please visit this code examples page.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored the capabilities of IronWord, a robust C# Word DOCX library that simplifies the process of opening and manipulating Word documents programmatically. By providing a rich feature set and eliminating dependencies on external software, IronWord empowers developers to seamlessly integrate document processing into their .NET applications. Whether you're automating document-related tasks or enhancing experiences, IronWord proves to be a valuable tool in your .NET toolkit.

To learn more and start incorporating IronWord into your new application projects, visit the documentation page.

IronWord offers a free-trial to test out its complete functionality. This helps you make an informed decision before purchasing it. Its Lite license starts from $799 and further details can be found on this license page.

Try IronWord for free from here.