Using "Microsoft Save as PDF" add-in programmatically without installing Word

Question

The sample code in this article for creating a PDF from a Word doc works great if you have word installed on the machine.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412305.aspx

I'm curious if it is possible to do this without having to install Word.

Answer 1

I think Word Interop around the 2000s allowed us to redistribute Word DLLs with our application, such that it worked even without Word being installed. However, this may no longer be the case.

One other option, depending on your use case, would be to generate the PDF directly: http://itextsharp.sourceforge.net/