Converting Excel to OFD Format

Aspose.Cells supports converting Excel workbooks directly to OFD (Open Fixed-layout Document) format using the SaveFormat.Ofd enumeration value. The resulting OFD document preserves the workbook’s visible layout, content, merged cells, column widths, row heights, fonts, colors, borders, and number formats. This makes Aspose.Cells suitable for archival, printing, regulatory filing, and government submission workflows that require a fixed-layout output.

Introduction

OFD (Open Fixed-layout Document) is a Chinese national standard (GB/T 33190-2016) for representing digital documents in a fixed, page-based layout. It serves a role similar to PDF for use cases where the visual appearance of the source document must be preserved exactly as authored. OFD is widely adopted for government submissions, regulatory filings, electronic invoices, and long-term archival in the People’s Republic of China.

Converting Excel workbooks to OFD is a common requirement in scenarios where spreadsheet content must be distributed as a read-only, layout-locked artifact rather than as an editable spreadsheet. Examples include shipping a finalized invoice to a customer, archiving a quarterly financial report, or submitting a budget spreadsheet to a regulatory authority. Aspose.Cells addresses this requirement through the SaveFormat.Ofd enumeration value, which writes the workbook directly to OFD without requiring an intermediate conversion step. The OFD output preserves cell values, merged ranges, fonts, colors, borders, number formats, and page setup options configured on the workbook.

The OFD output generated by Aspose.Cells preserves the visible layout of the source workbook, including cell content, merged cells, column widths, and row heights. Cell formatting such as fonts, colors, borders, alignment, and number formats are also rendered in the fixed-layout output. Page setup options configured on the worksheet, such as paper size, orientation, and print area, influence the layout of the resulting OFD document.

Creating an Excel Workbook and Saving as OFD

Aspose.Cells allows you to build a workbook programmatically, populate it with data, and then save it directly to OFD format using the SaveFormat.Ofd enumeration. The following example creates an invoice from scratch. It adds a company logo, header information, a bill-to section, line items, and calculated totals, then exports the workbook to an OFD document.

Building an Invoice with a Logo

The example constructs an invoice worksheet by inserting a logo image into the top-left area, populating the company name and contact details, adding an “INVOICE” title across merged cells, recording the invoice number and date, listing the bill-to client, building a line items table with description, quantity, unit price, and total columns, and computing the subtotal, tax, and grand total using cell formulas. Formatting such as bold headers, currency format for prices, borders, and column widths is applied using Style and Font objects. Finally, the workbook is saved with the .ofd extension using SaveFormat.Ofd.

// Aspose.Cells for C++ example
// Compile with Aspose.Cells 26.6.0 (or later) and a C++17 (or later) compiler

#include "Aspose.Cells.h"
#include <string>
#include <ctime>

using namespace Aspose::Cells;

int main()
{
    // Initialize Aspose.Cells
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    // Directory for resources and output
    const char16_t* dataDir = u"C:\\Temp\\";

    // Create a new workbook
    Workbook workbook;

    // Obtain the first worksheet
    Worksheet worksheet = workbook.GetWorksheets().Get(0);
    Cells cells = worksheet.GetCells();

    // Set column widths
    cells.SetColumnWidth(0, 5.0);
    cells.SetColumnWidth(1, 35.0);
    cells.SetColumnWidth(2, 12.0);
    cells.SetColumnWidth(3, 15.0);
    cells.SetColumnWidth(4, 15.0);
    cells.SetColumnWidth(5, 5.0);

    // Insert company logo
    worksheet.GetPictures().Add(1, 1, U16String(dataDir) + u"logo.png");

    // Company name and contact details
    cells.Get(u"B3").PutValue(u"Acme Corporation");
    cells.Get(u"B4").PutValue(u"123 Business Street");
    cells.Get(u"B5").PutValue(u"City, State 12345");
    cells.Get(u"B6").PutValue(u"Phone: [phone]");

    // INVOICE title - merge cells
    cells.Merge(7, 1, 2, 4);
    Cell titleCell = cells.Get(u"B8");
    titleCell.PutValue(u"INVOICE");

    Style titleStyle = workbook.CreateStyle();
    titleStyle.GetFont().SetIsBold(true);
    titleStyle.GetFont().SetSize(20);
    titleStyle.SetHorizontalAlignment(TextAlignmentType::Center);
    titleCell.SetStyle(titleStyle);

    // Invoice number and date
    cells.Get(u"B11").PutValue(u"Invoice Number:");
    cells.Get(u"C11").PutValue(u"INV-2024-001");
    cells.Get(u"B12").PutValue(u"Date:");

    std::time_t t = std::time(nullptr);
    std::tm* now = std::localtime(&t);
    char dateBuffer[11];
    std::strftime(dateBuffer, sizeof(dateBuffer), "%Y-%m-%d", now);
    cells.Get(u"C12").PutValue(U16String(dateBuffer));

    // Bill-to section
    cells.Get(u"B14").PutValue(u"Bill To:");
    cells.Get(u"B15").PutValue(u"Client Name");
    cells.Get(u"B16").PutValue(u"Client Address");
    cells.Get(u"B17").PutValue(u"Client City, State");

    // Line items header
    Cell headerDesc = cells.Get(u"B19");
    Cell headerQty = cells.Get(u"C19");
    Cell headerPrice = cells.Get(u"D19");
    Cell headerTotal = cells.Get(u"E19");

    headerDesc.PutValue(u"Description");
    headerQty.PutValue(u"Quantity");
    headerPrice.PutValue(u"Unit Price");
    headerTotal.PutValue(u"Total");

    Style headerStyle = workbook.CreateStyle();
    headerStyle.GetFont().SetIsBold(true);
    headerStyle.GetFont().SetColor(Color::White());
    headerStyle.SetForegroundColor(Color{0, 0, 128});
    headerStyle.SetPattern(BackgroundType::Solid);
    headerStyle.SetHorizontalAlignment(TextAlignmentType::Center);
    headerStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::TopBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    headerStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::BottomBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    headerStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::LeftBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    headerStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::RightBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);

    headerDesc.SetStyle(headerStyle);
    headerQty.SetStyle(headerStyle);
    headerPrice.SetStyle(headerStyle);
    headerTotal.SetStyle(headerStyle);

    // Currency style with borders
    Style currencyStyle = workbook.CreateStyle();
    currencyStyle.SetCustom(u"\"$\"#,##0.00");
    currencyStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::TopBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    currencyStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::BottomBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    currencyStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::LeftBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    currencyStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::RightBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);

    // Plain border style for description/quantity cells
    Style borderStyle = workbook.CreateStyle();
    borderStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::TopBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    borderStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::BottomBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    borderStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::LeftBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);
    borderStyle.GetBorders().Get(BorderType::RightBorder).SetLineStyle(CellBorderType::Thin);

    // Line items rows
    struct LineItem { const char16_t* desc; int qty; double price; };
    LineItem lineItems[] = {
        {u"Product A - Widget", 2, 50.00},
        {u"Product B - Gadget", 3, 75.00},
        {u"Product C - Service", 1, 100.00}
    };

    for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
    {
        int row = 20 + i;
        Cell descCell = cells.Get(row, 1);
        Cell qtyCell = cells.Get(row, 2);
        Cell priceCell = cells.Get(row, 3);
        Cell totalCell = cells.Get(row, 4);

        descCell.PutValue(lineItems[i].desc);
        qtyCell.PutValue(lineItems[i].qty);
        priceCell.PutValue(lineItems[i].price);

        std::string formula = "C" + std::to_string(row) + "*D" + std::to_string(row);
        totalCell.SetFormula(U16String(formula.c_str()));

        descCell.SetStyle(borderStyle);
        qtyCell.SetStyle(borderStyle);
        priceCell.SetStyle(currencyStyle);
        totalCell.SetStyle(currencyStyle);
    }

    // Subtotal, tax, grand total
    cells.Get(u"B24").PutValue(u"Subtotal:");
    Cell subtotalCell = cells.Get(u"E24");
    subtotalCell.SetFormula(u"SUM(E20:E22)");

    cells.Get(u"B25").PutValue(u"Tax (10%):");
    Cell taxCell = cells.Get(u"E25");
    taxCell.SetFormula(u"E24*0.1");

    cells.Get(u"B26").PutValue(u"Grand Total:");
    Cell grandTotalCell = cells.Get(u"E26");
    grandTotalCell.SetFormula(u"E24+E25");

    // Bold + currency style for total values
    Style totalStyle = workbook.CreateStyle();
    totalStyle.GetFont().SetIsBold(true);
    totalStyle.SetCustom(u"\"$\"#,##0.00");

    subtotalCell.SetStyle(totalStyle);
    taxCell.SetStyle(totalStyle);
    grandTotalCell.SetStyle(totalStyle);

    // Bold style for total labels
    Style boldStyle = workbook.CreateStyle();
    boldStyle.GetFont().SetIsBold(true);

    cells.Get(u"B24").SetStyle(boldStyle);
    cells.Get(u"B25").SetStyle(boldStyle);
    cells.Get(u"B26").SetStyle(boldStyle);

    // Save the workbook as an OFD file
    workbook.Save(U16String(dataDir) + u"Invoice.ofd", SaveFormat::Ofd);

    // Cleanup Aspose.Cells resources
    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();

    return 0;
}

Converting an Existing Excel File to OFD

Aspose.Cells can also load an existing Excel workbook from disk and export it directly to OFD format. This is useful for batch conversion pipelines, archival workflows, and scenarios where the source workbook was produced by another tool and only needs to be re-emitted as a fixed-layout artifact. The following example loads an existing .xlsx workbook, reads data from its cells, applies optional page setup adjustments, and saves the result as an OFD document.

#include "Aspose.Cells.h"
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>

using namespace Aspose::Cells;

std::string GetCurrentTimestamp() {
    std::time_t t = std::time(nullptr);
    std::tm* now = std::localtime(&t);
    char buffer[20];
    std::strftime(buffer, sizeof(buffer), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", now);
    return std::string(buffer);
}

int main() {
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    std::string dataDir = "C:\\Examples\\";

    // Open an existing Excel workbook from disk
    Workbook workbook(U16String((dataDir + "SampleBook.xlsx").c_str()));

    // (1) Read and display values from selected cells to confirm the file was loaded
    Worksheet firstSheet = workbook.GetWorksheets().Get(0);
    U16String sheetName = firstSheet.GetName();
    Cell a1 = firstSheet.GetCells().Get(u"A1");
    Cell b1 = firstSheet.GetCells().Get(u"B1");
    Cell c1 = firstSheet.GetCells().Get(u"C1");

    std::cout << "First sheet name: " << sheetName.ToUtf8() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Cell A1: " << a1.GetStringValue().ToUtf8() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Cell B1: " << b1.GetStringValue().ToUtf8() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Cell C1: " << c1.GetStringValue().ToUtf8() << std::endl;

    // (2) Iterate over the Worksheets collection to enumerate available sheets
    std::cout << "\nAvailable worksheets:" << std::endl;
    WorksheetCollection sheets = workbook.GetWorksheets();
    int sheetCount = sheets.GetCount();
    for (int i = 0; i < sheetCount; ++i) {
        Worksheet ws = sheets.Get(i);
        U16String wsName = ws.GetName();
        std::cout << "  [" << i << "] " << wsName.ToUtf8() << std::endl;
    }

    // (3) Optionally update a timestamp cell to reflect the conversion
    std::string timestamp1 = GetCurrentTimestamp();
    firstSheet.GetCells().Get(u"A1").PutValue(U16String(("Converted on: " + timestamp1).c_str()));

    // Append a summary header row at the top of the data block
    firstSheet.GetCells().InsertRow(0);
    firstSheet.GetCells().Get(u"A1").PutValue(u"Conversion Summary");

    std::string timestamp2 = GetCurrentTimestamp();
    firstSheet.GetCells().Get(u"A2").PutValue(U16String(("Generated: " + timestamp2).c_str()));

    // (4) Configure PageSetup properties on the worksheet
    PageSetup pageSetup = firstSheet.GetPageSetup();
    pageSetup.SetOrientation(PageOrientationType::Landscape);
    pageSetup.SetPaperSize(PaperSizeType::PaperA4);
    pageSetup.SetFitToPagesTall(1);
    pageSetup.SetFitToPagesWide(1);

    // (5) Optionally set the print area for the OFD output
    int lastRow = firstSheet.GetCells().GetMaxDataRow();
    int lastCol = firstSheet.GetCells().GetMaxDataColumn();
    U16String lastColLetter = CellsHelper::ColumnIndexToName(lastCol);
    std::string printArea = "A1:" + lastColLetter.ToUtf8() + std::to_string(lastRow + 1);
    firstSheet.GetPageSetup().SetPrintArea(U16String(printArea.c_str()));
    std::cout << "\nPrint area set to: " << printArea << std::endl;

    // (6) Save the workbook as an OFD file
    workbook.Save(U16String((dataDir + "SampleBook.ofd").c_str()), SaveFormat::Ofd);
    std::cout << "\nFile successfully converted to OFD format: " << dataDir << "SampleBook.ofd" << std::endl;

    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();
    return 0;
}

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