Create Microsoft Word document from C++ in Visual Studio 2005

Question

Hi. We got a homework assignment to create a Microsoft Word document using Visual Studio 2005 and C++. Could anyone explain how this could be done. I was trying to do it using VSTO, but I've had no luck. All resources on the internet I could find explain how this could be done in VB or C#, but I need some C++ examples. Thanks

EDIT: Accepted format is .doc.

Answer 1

Apparently VSTO is not available for C++.

Does this MSDN article help?:

• Embed and Automate a Word Document by Using C++ .NET and MFC

Answer 2

You can do this using Mircosoft Office's Primary Interop Assemblies. Doing this with C++ is not as difficult as it seems. you need to turn on Common Language Runtime support from project properties and then you can simply do a #using statement on the Mircosoft.Office.Interop.dll.

After that you should be OK to use the interop assembly as you want. In C++, you access .NET classes a little different i.e., replacing . with :: Something like...

Microsoft::Office::Interop::Word^ wordObj = new Microsoft::Office::Interop::Word();

Microsoft Office 2003 PIAs
Microsoft Office 2007 PIAs

Answer 3

Here is a spec of the binary Word document format. You could easily roll your own implementation.

http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/OfficeBinaryFormats.mspx

Answer 4

Take a look at Use OLE Automation from a C Application Rather Than C++. That will show you the plain way to access the OLE automation interface for Word.

For methods, properties, use the Object Browser which you can access by selecting Tools -> Macro -> Visual Basic Editor. Press F2 to invoke the object browser.

Answer 5

I think this might help: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/145573/creating-opening-and-printing-a-word-file-from-c

Please check especially the main function on example 2 since there it is shown how to start Word and make it visible.

Answer 6

Hi all. Are anyone know how write some data into storage...not meta data. This data must be not overwritten by ms-word on "save as", and not deleted some meta clean utilities? Thanks!