C# Word Document - How to clean formatting?

Question

The dilemma is rather simple. I need to create a small app that will clear all font background colors (leave table cell background colours unchanged), and remove all text with strikethrough in a word document, and then save the document into another folder. Otherwise the document's formatting should remain untouched.

Below is a large-ish example scraped together from random examples available in google showing how to apply specific kinds of formatting to random strings found using Find.Execute(). I have no clue however, on how to only do as described above.

public static string searchDoc(string fileNameRef)
    {

        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word._Application word = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application(); ;
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word._Document doc = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document();
        object missing = System.Type.Missing;

        try
        {
            System.IO.FileInfo ExecutableFileInfo =
                    new System.IO.FileInfo(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);

            object fileName =
                System.IO.Path.Combine(ExecutableFileInfo.DirectoryName, fileNameRef);

            doc = word.Documents.Open(ref fileName, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing
                , ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing
                , ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
            doc.Activate();

            //object findStr = "hello"; //sonething to find
            // THIS is the part where I fail, I can't find of a way to Find.Execute on formatting
            // as opposed to mere strings.
            //while (word.Selection.Find.Execute(ref findStr))  //found...
            //{
            //    //change font and format of matched words
            //    word.Selection.Font.Name = "Tahoma"; //change font to Tahoma
            //    word.Selection.Font.ColorIndex = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdColorIndex.wdRed;  //change color to red
            //}

            object saveFileName = ExecutableFileInfo.DirectoryName + "\\New\\" + fileNameRef;

            doc.SaveAs(ref saveFileName, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing
                , ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing
                , ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
        }
        finally
        {
            doc.Close(ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
            word.Application.Quit(ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
        }

        return fileNameRef;
    }

Thanks for any help! And I do mean any, simply getting started on how to spot formatting would help a great deal, I imagine. :)

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

This is not a C#-specific question; it's a Word Object Model question (I refer you to here and here).

As to your specific question, I suggest you turn on the Macro Recorder in Word, perform the actions, and see the generated VBA code. Then you can apply it in C#.

Try this:

using System;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;

namespace WordFormattingFindReplace {
    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
        }

        public static string searchDoc(string fileName) {
            _Application word = new Application(); ;
            _Document doc;

            string folderName = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);
            string filePath = Path.Combine(folderName,fileName);

            doc = word.Documents.Open(filePath);

            var find=doc.Range().Find;
            find.Text="Hello";
            find.Format=true;
            find.Replacement.Font.Name="Tahoma";
            find.Replacement.Font.ColorIndex=WdColorIndex.wdRed;
            find.Execute(Replace:WdReplace.wdReplaceAll);

            doc.SaveAs2(Path.Combine(folderName,"New",fileName));

            doc.Close();

            //We need to cast this to _Application to resolve which Quit method is being called
            ((_Application)word.Application).Quit();

            return fileName;
        }
    }
}

Some notes:

Use using statements for clarity. Instead of Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word._Application word, add using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word at the top of your file, and you can then just write _Application word
If all you need is the folder name, use the static Path.GetDirectoryName method and save as a string variable, instead of creating a FileInfo object
As of .NET 4, you can skip optional arguments when calling Documents.Open, Document.SaveAs and Document.Close. This also means you don't need an object missing.
There's nothing here the user really needs to see, so calling Document.Activate is unnecessary
It's probably better to reuse the Word.Application instance, instead of recreating it for each call.

C# Word Document - How to clean formatting?

1 Answers1