Can you please tell me me the status of the Aspose.Word.Viewer module? I can find references to a beta version but nothing more solid.
We have purchased a single developer licence of Aspose.Word to evaluate whether it can be used to replace MS Word in our web application. We are able to use Aspose.Word to create documents, but our application supports printing from the server which means we STILL need MS Word on the server. We will not be deploying Aspose.Word until it can completely replace MS Word in our app, so this is holding us back from purchasing the required multi-seat or distribution licences from you.
Aspose.Words.Viewer is generally in workable state. You can try it on your typical document output and check if it works ok. Beta stage means that we don’t offer the same level of hotfixing as for release-level libraries and also means that the object model used in beta library is subject to change.
I’ve just tested it and the print output is nothing like what I’m getting from MS Word, even for a simple document.
My code is simply:
(Using MS Word)
Dim oWord As Word.Application
Dim oDoc As Word.Document
oWord = New Word.Application
oDoc = oWord.Documents.Open(“c:\test.doc”)
oDoc.PrintOut()
oWord.Quit(False)
(Using Aspose)
Dim oDoc As Aspose.Words.Viewer.DocumentRenderer
oDoc = New Aspose.Words.Viewer.DocumentRenderer(“c:\test.doc”)
oDoc.Print()
My document is a simple test letter - with an address block at the top-right with multiple tabs before each line.
The MS word printout appears like this:
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
To:
Ref:
Dear Sir,
Some text
Yours sincerely
A Person
While from Aspose it looks like this:
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
To:
Ref:
Dear Sir,
Some text
Yours sincerely
A Person
The tabs are incorrect and the blank lines have been removed. The fonts are also incorrect - they look like they have been printed at a lower resolution. Should I be doing anything more than the basic code I’ve written?
Thanks for the reply. Are you in a position to say roughly when this release might be? I appreciate that you cannot say exactly, but is it likely to be a matter of days, weeks or months?
Tim M.
That’s excellent - thank you.
Our existing version streams the generated documents down to the browsing client, where it can be printed using MS Word. We can phase in server-side printing as a future project now we know we won’t have to wait too long.
We are happy to tell you that the new Rendering Engine has replaced the “old Viewer Beta”. The Rendering Engine can print, save as images or draw onto .NET Graphics object any document page.
Please see Aspose.Words documentation to learn more about new features.