Open and read Word files in C# and VB.NET
With GemBox.Document you can open and read many Word file formats (like DOCX, DOC, RTF, ODT and HTML) in the same manner. The documents can be loaded using one of the DocumentModel.Load methods from your C# and VB.NET application. These methods enable you to work with a physical file (when providing the file's path) or with an in-memory file (when providing the file's Stream).
You can specify the format of your Word file by providing an object from the LoadOptions derived class (like DocxLoadOptions, DocLoadOptions, RtfLoadOptions, and HtmlLoadOptions). Or you can let GemBox.Document choose the appropriate options for you when opening the file by omitting the LoadOptions.
The following example shows the easiest way how you can read the document's text from a Word file.
using System;
using System.Linq;
using GemBox.Document;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY");
// Load Word document from file's path.
var document = DocumentModel.Load("%InputFileName%");
// Get Word document's plain text.
string text = document.Content.ToString();
// Get Word document's count statistics.
int charactersCount = text.Replace(Environment.NewLine, string.Empty).Length;
int wordsCount = document.Content.CountWords();
int paragraphsCount = document.GetChildElements(true, ElementType.Paragraph).Count();
int pageCount = document.GetPaginator().Pages.Count;
// Display file's count statistics.
Console.WriteLine($"Characters count: {charactersCount}");
Console.WriteLine($" Words count: {wordsCount}");
Console.WriteLine($"Paragraphs count: {paragraphsCount}");
Console.WriteLine($" Pages count: {pageCount}");
Console.WriteLine();
// Display file's text content.
Console.WriteLine(text);
}
}Imports System
Imports System.Linq
Imports GemBox.Document
Module Program
Sub Main()
' If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY")
' Load Word document from file's path.
Dim document = DocumentModel.Load("%InputFileName%")
' Get Word document's plain text.
Dim text As String = document.Content.ToString()
' Get Word document's count statistics.
Dim charactersCount As Integer = text.Replace(Environment.NewLine, String.Empty).Length
Dim wordsCount As Integer = document.Content.CountWords()
Dim paragraphsCount As Integer = document.GetChildElements(True, ElementType.Paragraph).Count()
Dim pageCount As Integer = document.GetPaginator().Pages.Count
' Display file's count statistics.
Console.WriteLine($"Characters count: {charactersCount}")
Console.WriteLine($" Words count: {wordsCount}")
Console.WriteLine($"Paragraphs count: {paragraphsCount}")
Console.WriteLine($" Pages count: {pageCount}")
Console.WriteLine()
' Display file's text content.
Console.WriteLine(text)
End Sub
End ModuleReading Word document's elements
Besides reading the text of the whole document, you can also read just some part of it, like a specific Section element or HeaderFooter element. Each element has a Content property with which you can extract its text via the Content.ToString method.
The following example shows how you can open a document and traverse through all Paragraph elements and their child Run elements, and read their text and formatting. To read more about the visual information of the content elements, see the Formattings and Styles help page.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using GemBox.Document;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY");
var document = DocumentModel.Load("%InputFileName%");
using (var writer = File.CreateText("Output.txt"))
{
// Iterate through all Paragraph elements in the Word document.
foreach (Paragraph paragraph in document.GetChildElements(true, ElementType.Paragraph))
{
// Iterate through all Run elements in the Paragraph element.
foreach (Run run in paragraph.GetChildElements(true, ElementType.Run))
{
string text = run.Text;
CharacterFormat format = run.CharacterFormat;
// Replace text with bold formatting to 'Mathematical Bold Italic' Unicode characters.
// For instance, "ABC" to "𝑨𝑩𝑪".
if (format.Bold)
{
text = string.Concat(text.Select(
c => c >= 'A' && c <= 'Z' ? char.ConvertFromUtf32(119847 + c) :
c >= 'a' && c <= 'z' ? char.ConvertFromUtf32(119841 + c) :
c.ToString()));
}
writer.Write(text);
}
writer.WriteLine();
}
}
}
}Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Linq
Imports GemBox.Document
Module Program
Sub Main()
' If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY")
Dim document = DocumentModel.Load("%InputFileName%")
Using writer = File.CreateText("Output.txt")
' Iterate through all Paragraph elements in the Word document.
For Each paragraph As Paragraph In document.GetChildElements(True, ElementType.Paragraph)
' Iterate through all Run elements in the Paragraph element.
For Each run As Run In paragraph.GetChildElements(True, ElementType.Run)
Dim text As String = run.Text
Dim format As CharacterFormat = run.CharacterFormat
' Replace text with bold formatting to 'Mathematical Bold Italic' Unicode characters.
' For instance, "ABC" to "𝑨𝑩𝑪".
If format.Bold Then
text = String.Concat(text.Select(
Function(c)
Return If(c >= "A"c AndAlso c <= "Z"c, Char.ConvertFromUtf32(119847 + AscW(c)),
If(c >= "a"c AndAlso c <= "z"c, Char.ConvertFromUtf32(119841 + AscW(c)),
c.ToString()))
End Function))
End If
writer.Write(text)
Next
writer.WriteLine()
Next
End Using
End Sub
End ModuleBy combining these two examples you can achieve various tasks, like selecting only the Table elements and reading their text content, or selecting only the Picture elements and extracting their images, or reading the Run.Text property of only the highlighted elements (the ones that have CharacterFormat.HighlightColor).
Reading Word document's pages
Word files (DOCX, DOC, RTF, HTML, etc.) don't have a page concept, which means they don't contain information about how many pages they occupy nor which element is on which page.
They are of a flow document type and their content is written in a flow-able manner. The page concept is specific to the Word application(s) that renders or displays the document.
On the other hand, files of fixed document type (PDF, XPS, etc.) do have a page concept. Their content is fixed: it's defined on which exact page location the elements are rendered.
GemBox.Document uses its rendering engine to paginate and render the document's content when saving to PDF, XPS, or image format. So, the best and the easiest way to read the text content of some specific page is to convert a Word document to a PDF file (or save a specific Word page as a PDF) with GemBox.Document and then read the PDF page's text content with our other component, GemBox.Pdf.
Nevertheless, the following example shows how you can use GemBox.Document's rendering engine to retrieve each document page as a FrameworkElement object from a WPF framework and then extract text from it using the provided FrameworkElement.ToText extension method.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Media;
using GemBox.Document;
class Program
{
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
// If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY");
var document = DocumentModel.Load("Reading.docx");
var pages = document.GetPaginator().Pages;
for (int i = 0, count = pages.Count; i < count; ++i)
{
Console.WriteLine(new string('-', 50));
Console.WriteLine($"Page {i + 1} of {count}");
Console.WriteLine(new string('-', 50));
// Get FrameworkElement object from Word document's page.
DocumentModelPage page = pages[i];
FrameworkElement pageContent = page.PageContent;
// Extract text from FrameworkElement object.
Console.WriteLine(pageContent.ToText());
}
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Contains methods that are used to extract text out of a FrameworkElement object.
/// </summary>
public static class GemBoxDocumentHelper
{
public static string ToText(this FrameworkElement root)
{
var builder = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var visual in root.GetSelfAndDescendants().OfType<DrawingVisual>())
{
GlyphRun previousRun = null;
// Order runs first vertically (Y), then horizontally (X).
foreach (var currentRun in visual.Drawing
.GetSelfAndDescendants()
.OfType<GlyphRunDrawing>()
.Select(glyph => glyph.GlyphRun)
.OrderBy(run => run.BaselineOrigin.Y)
.ThenBy(run => run.BaselineOrigin.X))
{
if (previousRun != null)
{
// If base-line of current text segment is left from base-line of previous text segment, then assume that it is new line.
if (currentRun.BaselineOrigin.X <= previousRun.BaselineOrigin.X)
{
builder.AppendLine();
}
else
{
Rect currentRect = currentRun.ComputeAlignmentBox();
Rect previousRect = previousRun.ComputeAlignmentBox();
double spaceWidth = currentRun.BaselineOrigin.X + currentRect.Left - previousRun.BaselineOrigin.X - previousRect.Right;
double spaceHeight = (currentRect.Height + previousRect.Height) / 2;
// If space between successive text segments has width greater than a sixth of its height, then assume that it is a word (add a space).
if (spaceWidth > spaceHeight / 6)
builder.Append(' ');
}
}
builder.Append(currentRun.Characters.ToArray());
previousRun = currentRun;
}
}
return builder.ToString();
}
private static IEnumerable<DependencyObject> GetSelfAndDescendants(this DependencyObject parent)
{
yield return parent;
for (int i = 0, count = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(parent); i < count; i++)
foreach (var descendant in VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(parent, i).GetSelfAndDescendants())
yield return descendant;
}
private static IEnumerable<Drawing> GetSelfAndDescendants(this DrawingGroup parent)
{
yield return parent;
foreach (var child in parent.Children)
{
var drawings = child as DrawingGroup;
if (drawings != null)
foreach (var descendant in drawings.GetSelfAndDescendants())
yield return descendant;
else
yield return child;
}
}
}Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Windows
Imports System.Windows.Media
Imports GemBox.Document
Module Program
<STAThread>
Sub Main()
' If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY")
Dim document = DocumentModel.Load("Reading.docx")
Dim pages = document.GetPaginator().Pages
Dim count = pages.Count
For i = 0 To count - 1
Console.WriteLine(New String("-"c, 50))
Console.WriteLine($"Page {i + 1} of {count}")
Console.WriteLine(New String("-"c, 50))
' Get FrameworkElement object from Word document's page.
Dim page As DocumentModelPage = pages(i)
Dim pageContent As FrameworkElement = page.PageContent
' Extract text from FrameworkElement object.
Console.WriteLine(pageContent.ToText())
Next
End Sub
End Module
''' <summary>
''' Contains methods that are used to extract text out of a FrameworkElement object.
''' </summary>
Module GemBoxDocumentHelper
<Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension>
Function ToText(ByVal root As FrameworkElement) As String
Dim builder As New StringBuilder()
For Each visual In root.GetSelfAndDescendants().OfType(Of DrawingVisual)()
Dim previousRun As GlyphRun = Nothing
' Order runs first vertically (Y), then horizontally (X).
For Each currentRun In visual.Drawing _
.GetSelfAndDescendants() _
.OfType(Of GlyphRunDrawing)() _
.Select(Function(glyph) glyph.GlyphRun) _
.OrderBy(Function(run) run.BaselineOrigin.Y) _
.ThenBy(Function(run) run.BaselineOrigin.X)
If previousRun IsNot Nothing Then
' If base-line of current text segment is left from base-line of previous text segment, then assume that it is new line.
If currentRun.BaselineOrigin.X <= previousRun.BaselineOrigin.X Then
builder.AppendLine()
Else
Dim currentRect As Rect = currentRun.ComputeAlignmentBox()
Dim previousRect As Rect = previousRun.ComputeAlignmentBox()
Dim spaceWidth As Double = currentRun.BaselineOrigin.X + currentRect.Left - previousRun.BaselineOrigin.X - previousRect.Right
Dim spaceHeight As Double = (currentRect.Height + previousRect.Height) / 2
' If space between successive text segments has width greater than a sixth of its height, then assume that it is a word (add a space).
If spaceWidth > spaceHeight / 6 Then builder.Append(" "c)
End If
End If
builder.Append(currentRun.Characters.ToArray())
previousRun = currentRun
Next
Next
Return builder.ToString()
End Function
<Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension>
Private Iterator Function GetSelfAndDescendants(ByVal parent As DependencyObject) As IEnumerable(Of DependencyObject)
Yield parent
Dim count = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(parent)
For i = 0 To count - 1
For Each descendant In VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(parent, i).GetSelfAndDescendants()
Yield descendant
Next
Next
End Function
<Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension>
Private Iterator Function GetSelfAndDescendants(ByVal parent As DrawingGroup) As IEnumerable(Of Drawing)
Yield parent
For Each child In parent.Children
Dim drawings = TryCast(child, DrawingGroup)
If drawings IsNot Nothing Then
For Each descendant In drawings.GetSelfAndDescendants()
Yield descendant
Next
Else
Yield child
End If
Next
End Function
End Module
