How do I embed a custom user-control in MS Word ?

Question

Context: The environment is .Net 3.0 + WPF land, the DB is abstracted well out into the distance and the solution would need to work for Office 2000 and up I guess..

The need is to get a customized report for which the user would like to have certain application windows/boxes (e.g. a trend graph) displayed in Word. The window can be shown as a static image, the user can double-click and edit it (that would bring up an editor.. similar to behavior for an embedded spreadsheet) and OK out to update the object. Type some text around the box and save it or print it.

Also take into account, that I would need some mechanism to pass in data and kind of "data-bind" these app-specific boxes to it. e.g. the graph may have to bind to a specific time-range of data that it needs.

Now as a relative beginner to Word automation, what is the name of the tech / sub-tech that I would need to use for this? Also post any recommendations to books/posts that help you understand and get to running speed ASAP.. (since the business always believes the programmers are smart enough to figure it out.. we can give them complete trust.. but no time.)

Answer 1

I would strongly recommend making it dependant on Office 2007 and later. If you do so, you can use the ribbon and do .Net programming via VSTO.

Answer 2

I think you are going to have to look into writing an OLE embeddable/compatible application. It sounds like this may be a very large and complex task.

Is there any reason that Excel cannot do the graph that you are embedding?