Overview of Word library (DocIO)

31 May 20252 minutes to read

Essential® DocIO is a native .NET Word library that is used by developers to create, read, write, and convert Microsoft Word documents by using C#, VB.NET, and managed C++ code from any of the following .NET platforms - Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Core, Blazor, WPF, Xamarin, WinUI and .NET MAUI applications.

It is a non-UI component that provides a full-fledged document instance model similar to the Microsoft Office COM libraries to iterate with the document elements explicitly and perform necessary manipulation. It is built from scratch in C# and does not require Microsoft Word to be installed in the machine. It supports Word 97-2003 and later version documents.

TIPS

If you encounter issues while using the .NET Word library in ASP.NET Core, refer to the troubleshooting guide for recommended checks and solutions.

Key Features

  • Support to create Word document from scratch.
  • Support to open, modify and save existing Word documents.
  • Advanced Mail merge support with different data sources.
  • Ability to create or edit Word 97-2003 and later version documents, and convert them to commonly used file formats such as RTF, WordML, TXT, HTML and vice versa.
  • Ability to export a Word document as an Image, PDF file, and EPUB in high quality.
  • Ability to merge and split Word documents.
  • Support to compare two DOCX format documents.
  • Ability to create and manipulate charts, Shapes, and Group shape in DOCX and WordML format documents.
  • Ability to read and write Built-In and Custom Document Properties.
  • Ability to find and replace text with its original formatting.
  • Ability to insert Bookmarks and navigate corresponding bookmarks to insert, replace, and delete content.
  • Support to insert and edit the form fields.
  • Support to protect the document to restrict access to the elements present within the document.
  • Ability to encrypt and decrypt Word documents.
  • Support to insert and extract OLE objects.
  • Support to run the DocIO applications in multi-thread and its thread safe.

Compatible Microsoft Word Versions

  • Microsoft Word 97-2003
  • Microsoft Word 2007
  • Microsoft Word 2010
  • Microsoft Word 2013
  • Microsoft Word 2016
  • Microsoft Word 2019
  • Microsoft 365

See Also