VS 2022 Programmatically Create New Word Documents (Tutorial)

Documents are increasingly becoming digital in the digital age. Documents in the business setting are often associated with Microsoft Word and its document-based Word file. Writing and editing Microsoft Word documents has become the foundation for passing information around in large organizations. However, manually creating and editing documents can be a painful process; to automate Word generation programmatically is no easy feat either, as many open-source libraries rely on Microsoft Office Word for dependency.

However, managing and creating Word documents doesn't need to be this difficult. IronWord is a C# Word Library that is not dependent on Microsoft Office Word and allows users to customize the entire document while also allowing document generation and creating document templates programmatically.

In today's tutorial, I'll briefly explain how to programmatically create a Microsoft Word Document using IronWord and provide brief examples.

IronWord: A C# Word Library

IronWord is an exceptionally reliable and user-friendly C# Docx library that empowers developers to construct and modify Word documents using C#, all without needing traditional dependencies such as Microsoft Office or Word Interop. Additionally, it boasts extensive documentation and provides full support for .NET 8, 7, 6, Framework, Core, and Azure, making it universally compatible with most applications. This level of flexibility makes it an excellent choice for any application you may be dealing with.

Setting up the environment

For this example, we'll create a console app using Visual Studio and showcase how to create blank Word documents and manipulate them using the IronWord Library. Before we proceed with this next step, ensure that you have Visual Studio installed.

First, let's create a new console app.

Then, provide a project name and save the location, as shown below.

Finally, select the desired framework.

Installing the C# Word Library

After creating the blank console app, we'll download IronWord through NuGet Package Manager.

Click on "Manage NuGet Packages," then search IronWord in the "Browse" tab as shown below.

Afterward, install it onto the newly created project.

Alternatively, you can type the following command in the command line to install IronWord.

Install-Package IronWord

Now that everything is set up and ready to go, let's move to an example of creating Word documents.

License Key

Please remember that IronWord requires a licensing key for operation. You can get a key as part of a free trial by visiting this link.

// Replace the license key variable with the trial key you obtained
IronWord.License.LicenseKey = "REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-KEY";

// Replace the license key variable with the trial key you obtained
IronWord.License.LicenseKey = "REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-KEY";

' Replace the license key variable with the trial key you obtained
IronWord.License.LicenseKey = "REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-KEY"

After receiving a trial key, set this variable in your project.

Creating a new Word Document

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create a textrun
        Text textRun = new Text("Sample text");
        Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
        paragraph.AddChild(textRun);

        // Create a new Word document with the paragraph
        WordDocument doc = new WordDocument(paragraph);

        // Export docx
        doc.SaveAs("document.docx");
    }
}

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create a textrun
        Text textRun = new Text("Sample text");
        Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
        paragraph.AddChild(textRun);

        // Create a new Word document with the paragraph
        WordDocument doc = new WordDocument(paragraph);

        // Export docx
        doc.SaveAs("document.docx");
    }
}

Imports IronWord
Imports IronWord.Models

Friend Class Program
	Shared Sub Main()
		' Create a textrun
		Dim textRun As New Text("Sample text")
		Dim paragraph As New Paragraph()
		paragraph.AddChild(textRun)

		' Create a new Word document with the paragraph
		Dim doc As New WordDocument(paragraph)

		' Export docx
		doc.SaveAs("document.docx")
	End Sub
End Class

Explanation

1. First, we import the IronWord Library and its models in the sample code.
2. We create a new Text variable. This variable allows us to add text to the Word document.
3. We then add the textRun to a Paragraph. This allows us to easily manipulate the text by distinguishing between the two.
4. We pass the paragraph parameter to a new WordDocument class to create a new document object.
5. Finally, we save the document as "document.docx" to a Word file.

In the previous example, we created a Word document with basic text. Let's do an example with more advanced features, such as customizing the text and adding text effects.

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Ensure to set up the license key
        IronWord.License.LicenseKey = "YOUR-KEY";

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

        // Create sample texts with styles
        Text introText = new Text("This is an example paragraph with italic and bold styling.");
        TextStyle italicStyle = new TextStyle()
        {
            IsItalic = true
        };
        Text italicText = new Text("Italic example sentence.");
        italicText.Style = italicStyle;

        TextStyle boldStyle = new TextStyle()
        {
            IsBold = true
        };
        Text boldText = new Text("Bold example sentence.");
        boldText.Style = boldStyle;

        // Create a paragraph and add texts
        Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
        paragraph.AddText(introText);
        paragraph.AddText(italicText);
        paragraph.AddText(boldText);

        // Add paragraph to the document
        doc.AddParagraph(paragraph);

        // Export the document
        doc.SaveAs("save_document.docx");
    }
}

using IronWord;
using IronWord.Models;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Ensure to set up the license key
        IronWord.License.LicenseKey = "YOUR-KEY";

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

        // Create sample texts with styles
        Text introText = new Text("This is an example paragraph with italic and bold styling.");
        TextStyle italicStyle = new TextStyle()
        {
            IsItalic = true
        };
        Text italicText = new Text("Italic example sentence.");
        italicText.Style = italicStyle;

        TextStyle boldStyle = new TextStyle()
        {
            IsBold = true
        };
        Text boldText = new Text("Bold example sentence.");
        boldText.Style = boldStyle;

        // Create a paragraph and add texts
        Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
        paragraph.AddText(introText);
        paragraph.AddText(italicText);
        paragraph.AddText(boldText);

        // Add paragraph to the document
        doc.AddParagraph(paragraph);

        // Export the document
        doc.SaveAs("save_document.docx");
    }
}

Imports IronWord
Imports IronWord.Models

Friend Class Program
	Shared Sub Main()
		' Ensure to set up the license key
		IronWord.License.LicenseKey = "YOUR-KEY"

		' Load an existing docx
		Dim doc As New WordDocument("document.docx")

		' Create sample texts with styles
		Dim introText As New Text("This is an example paragraph with italic and bold styling.")
		Dim italicStyle As New TextStyle() With {.IsItalic = True}
		Dim italicText As New Text("Italic example sentence.")
		italicText.Style = italicStyle

		Dim boldStyle As New TextStyle() With {.IsBold = True}
		Dim boldText As New Text("Bold example sentence.")
		boldText.Style = boldStyle

		' Create a paragraph and add texts
		Dim paragraph As New Paragraph()
		paragraph.AddText(introText)
		paragraph.AddText(italicText)
		paragraph.AddText(boldText)

		' Add paragraph to the document
		doc.AddParagraph(paragraph)

		' Export the document
		doc.SaveAs("save_document.docx")
	End Sub
End Class

Explanation of code

1. Like the example above, we create the Text object and add the sample text for the document.
2. We then create a new TextStyle object and assign the property IsItalic as true, indicating the text should be in italics.
3. We do the same for the boldText variable, assigning true to the property IsBold.
4. We then assign the TextStyle variables to their respective Text variables.
5. We create a Paragraph variable and call the AddText method to add the italic and bold text.
6. We add the paragraph to the document using the AddParagraph method.
7. Finally, we save the document as "save_document.docx".

The example above showcases the fonts and styles developers can use using IronWord. Aside from italics and bold text effects, IronWord also offers other features to ensure developers have all the options to create unique Word documents in various scenarios.

Conclusion

Our demonstrations showed how easy it is to use the IronWord library to create Word documents in C# programmatically. The library's flexibility and scalability make it a valuable tool for developers in real-life scenarios, such as customizing text, font, and style in a Word document. Understanding how Word integrates with other applications provides developers additional solutions to their challenges.

IronWord provides a free trial license.