DocX is a .NET library that allows developers to manipulate Word 2007/2010/2013 files, in an easy and intuitive manner. DocX is fast, lightweight and best of all it does not require Microsoft Word or Office to be installed.
NOTE: There is a new Master branch as of Oct. 3, 2017. Please read about the Classic branch if you were using this project before the change.
DocX is the free, open source version of Xceed Words for .NET. Originally written by Cathal Coffey, and maintained by Przemyslaw Klys, it is now maintained by Xceed. Starting at v1.5.0, this free and open source product is provided under the Xceed Community License agreement(for non-commercial use).
Currently, the differences between DocX and Xceed Words for .NET, is that Xceed Words for .NET :
All that you need to install in order to use DocX is the .NET framework 4.0 or .NET5+ and Visual Studio 2010 or later, both of which are free.
Edition | DocX | Xceed Words for .NET |
Price | Free | $599.95 |
License | Xceed Community License | Proprietary |
Email support | YES | |
Create new Word documents | YES | YES |
Modify Word documents | YES | YES |
Create new PDF documents | YES | |
Convert Word to PDF | YES | |
Supports .DOCX from Word 2007 and up | YES | YES |
Modify multiple documents in parallel for better performance | YES | YES |
Apply a template to a Word document | YES | YES |
Join documents, recreate portions from one to another | YES | YES |
Supports document protection with or without password | YES | YES |
Set document margins and page size | YES | YES |
Set line spacing, indentation, text direction, text alignment | YES | YES |
Wrap text around pictures | YES | |
Pictures with cropping | YES | |
Manage fonts and font sizes | YES | YES |
Set text color, bold, underline, italic, strikethrough, highlighting | YES | YES |
Set page numbering | YES | YES |
Create sections | YES | YES |
Available on .net for .net 5+ applications | YES | YES |
Update document fields (ex: a table of contents) by calling only one method | YES | |
Wrap text around tables | YES | |
Wrap text around shapes | YES | |
Create shapes (rectangles for now) | YES | |
Create textboxes or shapes containing text | YES | |
Get shapes from paragraphs | YES | |
Get charts from paragraphs and modify their categories/values | YES | |
Update document fields with 1 method call | YES | |
Insert html/rtf text (with tags), or html/rtf document, to a Word document | YES | |
Clone lists or tables | YES | |
Add or modify checkboxes | YES | |
Set transparency in pictures | YES | |
Create formatted hyperlinks based on a referenced hyperlinks | YES | |
Joining 2 documents gives the opportunity to choose which headers/footers to use | YES | |
More properties to configure Charts | YES | |
Automatic Hyphenations and configurable hyphenations | YES | |
Digital signatures in .NET Framework | YES | |
Add footnotes and endnotes | YES | |
ListOptions for List level configurations | YES | |
Modify Chart's Series Marker and DataPoint styles | YES | |
Insert a document at a specific point in another document | YES | |
Wrap text around Charts | YES | |
Format Charts Axis' title | YES | |
Replace text with html | YES | |
Get release ahead | YES |
Supported Word document elements
DocX makes creating and manipulating documents a simple task. It does not use COM libraries nor does it require Microsoft Office to be installed.
The following blog post from Cathal Coffey compares the code used to create a HelloWorld document using:
Do you have an interesting or informative example that you would like to share? If you do, please email me.
DocX is provided under the Xceed Software, Inc. Community License.