Error Occurred When Instantiating a Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word Object

Question

I am currently retrieving a word file that's on a file system to display it in a MVC 5 razer view in .NET. Now, the file is properly being displayed on my local IIS when testing and using my local machine. I also keep the file on my local machine for testing purposes.

Everything works fine when testing on my local machine. I then publish/deploy the changes to my remote server's IIS and check to see if the site is working. When I go to the page where the Word file is displayed, I get an error message "An error occurred while processing your request."

The code is below

public ActionResult GetChapterContent()
    {
        StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application word = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
        object miss = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;
        object path = @"/Books/1/Chapters/1/chapter-1.docx";
        //object path = @"/Books/1/Chapters/1/chapter-1.docx";
        object readOnly = true;
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document docs = word.Documents.Open(ref path, ref miss, ref readOnly, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss, ref miss);

        var y = false;
        for (int i = 0; i < docs.Paragraphs.Count; i++)
        {

            if(docs.Paragraphs[i + 1].Range.Text.Contains("***")) {
                if (y == false)
                {
                    text.Append("<span class='ci'>" + docs.Paragraphs[i + 1].Range.Text.ToString().Substring(3));
                    y = true;
                }
                else
                {
                    text.Append(docs.Paragraphs[i + 1].Range.Text.ToString().Remove(docs.Paragraphs[i + 1].Range.Text.ToString().Length - 4, 3) + "</span>");
                    y = false;
                }
            }
            else {
                text.Append("" + docs.Paragraphs[i + 1].Range.Text.ToString());
            }
        }
        return Content("DF");
    }

Now, I've managed to narrow down the issue to just the first two lines of code:

StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application word = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();

Just having these two lines of code will result in the error. If I remove it - all will be fine.

make sure you have word application is your server and have sufficient permission — cpr43, Feb 06 '18 at 05:17
I was thinking my server needs Word, as well.. Is this really true, though? Can't I just install something lightweight instead of Office entirely? Office is not a small program to install on a server... — George Daniel, Feb 06 '18 at 05:18
Nope .. for word interop to work you need microsoft word on your server — cpr43, Feb 06 '18 at 05:35
Thanks guys, I'll check out these solutions... I definitely don't want to install Word. — George Daniel, Feb 06 '18 at 05:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 06 '18 at 06:01

1

Maybe you can try NPOI，it can operate your excel and word without office.

answered Feb 06 '18 at 06:01

EOF_Y

43
6

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '18 at 07:00

Two things here because Microsoft.Office.Interop will require a valid office pack on your system.

1) use NPOI

It will not require a valid office pack on the system and you can use it for read write etc...

2) use OpenXml

For word processing, style-sheet and cell processing.

Each of them will get to the desired location the question is, what will suite your needs best.

third option is to install office pack on the remote server.

Error Occurred When Instantiating a Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word Object

2 Answers2