How do I use C# to fill out a Word document?

Question

I have a Word document, letter.docx, that is a letter I intend to mail to hundreds of people for a party. The letter is already composed and has been formatted in its own special way with varying type sizes and fonts. It's set and ready to go, with placeholders where I have to fill out variables that change like Name, Address, phone number, etc.

Now, I would like to write a C# program where a user can type in variable things like Name, Address, etc., into a form, hit a button, and produce letter.docx with the right information filled in at the right places.

I understand Word has features that allow you do this, but I really want to do this in C#.

Answer 1

Of course you can do it. Use Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word reference in your project.

First bookmark all the fields you want to be updated in the document from 'insert' tab (eg. NameField is bookmarked with tag 'name_field'). Then, in your C# code add the following:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application wordApp = null;
wordApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
wordApp.Visible = true;

Document wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open(@"C:\test.docx");
Bookmark bkm = wordDoc.Bookmarks["name_field"];
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Range rng = bkm.Range;
rng.Text = "Adams Laura"; //Get value from any where

Remember to properly save & close the document.(You can see this)

Answer 2

I don't know of anything built into the language, but the example here seems to do exactly what you want.

If you can provide specific examples of what you want to do (are the placeholders Fields? specifically name bits of text?), I can probably give you a more refined answer that directly targets your problem.

Answer 3

Word Provides COM objects that one can make use of in C#

Add a reference to the Microsoft office interop under the COM tab in the add reference dialog

Also, see this question:

Filling in FIelds in work using C#