Converting word file to pdf

Question

There is a free library that I can convert word file to pdf ?

I have word file saved database with type varbinary(MAX) and I recover as byte[] in C# and I want to convert word to pdf to show on HTML page.

I show in the HTML page using Viewerjs, but she accepts only PDF and ODT.

Here’s the return code:

return new FileContentResult(_WordByte, "application/pdf");

The above code does not work, first I need to convert to pdf, some solution ?

Answer 1

There is another option that is using the interoperability library with Office, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.

I tested it here and I got to do it like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;

static class Program
{
    public static Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document wordDocument { get; set; }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Definição dos endereços dos arquivos de entrada e saida - O endereço deve estar completo
        string docOrigem = "D:\\teste.docx"; 
        string pdfSaida = "D:\\saida.pdf";

        // Utiliza as próprias dll do wor para realizar a conversão
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application appWord = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
        wordDocument = appWord.Documents.Open(docOrigem);
        wordDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat(pdfSaida, WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatPDF);

        // Fecha a aplicação e o documento
        appWord.Quit()
        wordDocument.Close() 
    }
}

Then just treat the generated PDF file as you wish.
If this solution works, I advise you to put some checks before, for example, test if the file exists and use try/catch.

Answer 2

I’ll leave my answer here to help the people who need to convert you. In my logic I am converting (word, excel and Powerpoint) to PDF and returns bytes[]:

Before going to logic, you need to install 3 components, they are:

PM> Install-Package Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word -Version 15.0.4797.1003

PM> Install-Package Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel -Version 15.0.4795.1000

PM> Install-Package Microsoft.Office.Interop.Powerpoint -Version 15.0.4420.1017

HttpPostedFileBase file = Request.Files[0];

string ext = Path.GetExtension(file.FileName);

byte[] PDF = ConvertToPDF(file, ext);

private byte[] ConvertToPDF(HttpPostedFileBase file, string ext)
{
    //salva o arquivo na pasta App_Data
    string path = Server.MapPath($"~/App_Data/nome_arquivo");
    file.SaveAs($"{path}{ext}");

    //Micrososft Word
    if (ext == ".doc" || ext == ".docx")
    {
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document doc = app.Documents.Open($"{path}{ext}");
        //Converter para PDF
        doc.ExportAsFixedFormat($"{path}.pdf", Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatPDF);
        doc.Close();
        app.Quit();
        //Leia o arquivo e retorna bytes[]
        return System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes($"{path}.pdf");
    }
    //Microsoft Excel
    if (ext == ".xls" || ext == ".xlsx")
    {
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook wkb = app.Workbooks.Open($"{path}{ext}");
        //Converter para PDF
        wkb.ExportAsFixedFormat(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlFixedFormatType.xlTypePDF, $"{path}.pdf");
        wkb.Close();
        app.Quit();
        //Leia o arquivo e retorna bytes[]
        return System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes($"{path}.pdf");
    }
    //Microsoft PowerPoint
    else
    {
        //ppt || pptx 
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Application();
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Presentation presentation = app.Presentations.Open($"{path}{ext}",
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue,
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse,
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse);

        //Converter para PDF
        presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat($"{path}.pdf", Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.PpFixedFormatType.ppFixedFormatTypePDF);
        presentation.Close();
        app.Quit();
        //Leia o arquivo e retorna bytes[]
        return System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes($"{path}.pdf");
    }
}

Remembering that on the server you need to Microsoft Office installed.

Answer 3

How there are two answers using the Interop, I decided to post a solution that does not use it, not needing Office installed on the server.

You can do this using the Freespire.DOC.

To install it use Nuget:

Install-Package Freespire.Doc

Below is an example method that takes the path of a Word file and converts it to PDF:

If you prefer see the example on Github.

public static bool ConverterWordParaPDF(string caminhoArquivoWord, string caminhoParaSalvarResultadoPDF, out string nomeArquivoPDF)
{
    nomeArquivoPDF = String.Empty;

    //Se o arquivo não existir, retornar falso
    if (!File.Exists(caminhoArquivoWord))
    {
        return false;
    }

    //Gera um guid para usar no nome do arquivo e concatena com o caminho onde o arquivo será armazenado:
    string caminhoCompletoPDF = caminhoParaSalvarResultadoPDF + "\\" + Guid.NewGuid() + ".pdf";

    using (Document document = new Document())
    {
        document.LoadFromFile(caminhoArquivoWord);
        document.SaveToFile(caminhoCompletoPDF, Spire.Doc.FileFormat.PDF);
    }

    if (!File.Exists(caminhoCompletoPDF))
    {
        return false;
    }
    else
    {
        nomeArquivoPDF = caminhoCompletoPDF;
    }
    return true;
}

Example of call to method:

string resultadoPDF;
if(ConverterWordParaPDF(CaminhoArquivoWord, caminhoConversaoPDF, out resultadoPDF))
{
    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Arquivo Word convertido com sucesso. Caminho do arquivo: {0}", resultadoPDF));
}

On Github there is also an example for converting Excel files.

Read the Free Spire.DOC documentation on the developer’s website.