Supported Features

Aspose.Words provides users with a wide range of features. Users can perform a huge amount of document-related tasks – from simply converting documents from one supported format to another and modifying those documents during the conversion process to business tasks, such as creating structured and visually appealing documents or automating reporting.

Modern document formats and standards are complex, and when you require document conversion or other document processing features in your project, the only practical solution is often to rely on a third-party component that implements the desired functionality. But using a third-party component always carries some risk. One of the unique risks in document processing is the question about how completely and correctly the library implements a particular document format or standard.

Aspose is committed to delivering the most complete and accurate implementations of document formats and standards. The Aspose.Words team demonstrates their commitment to interoperability by providing detailed implementation notes for supported document formats across multiple platforms.

The tables below summarize and compare the availability of Aspose.Words for .NET features and provide links to detailed feature descriptions.

Platforms Overview

The platforms Aspose.Words for .NET can be used with are listed below. If you need support for more platforms, look for the “twin brother” product Aspose.Words for Java.

Feature Description
.NET Framework Use Aspose.Words for .NET to build ASP.NET, Web Services, WinForms or any other type of application for any .NET Framework versions 2.0 or later including Client Profile versions. Full support for 32-bit and 64-bit.
.NET Standard 2.0 The ‘netstandard2.0’ and ‘netstandard2.0_AuthenticodeSigned’ folders contain assemblies to use with frameworks that implement .NET Standard 2.0 such as .NET Core 2.0/2.1/2.2/3.0/3.1. The latest version of Aspose.Words API also supports .NET 5.0 and .NET 6.0.
Xamarin.Android Use Aspose.Words for .NET in your native Android applications.
Xamarin.iOS Use Aspose.Words for .NET in your native iOS applications.
Xamarin.Mac Use Aspose.Words for .NET in your native Mac applications.
COM Can be a lifesaver if you have to develop using pre- .NET technologies.
Mono You can use Aspose.Words for .NET to build applications with Mono.
Windows Azure Yes, Aspose.Words for .NET runs on Windows Azure.

File Formats and Conversions

Many customers worldwide rely on the thorough document import and export features provided by Aspose.Words.

Feature Description .NET .NET Standard 2.0 Xamarin.Android Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Microsoft Word - DOC The fastest and most complete DOC format implementation you can find. tick tick tick tick tick
WordprocessingML - DOCX and XML Aspose.Words provides exhaustive support OOXML, Flat OPC and also Word 2003 XML. tick tick tick tick tick
Rich Text Format - RTF Comprehensive support of the RTF format to interact with a variety of applications. tick tick tick tick tick
HTML, XHTML and MHTML Load and save HTML/XHTML for even greater interoperability. Save as MHTML is also available. tick tick tick tick tick
OpenDocument - ODT Aspose.Words can load and save documents in the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format. tick tick tick tick tick
Adobe Portable Document Format - PDF Convert any document to PDF with high fidelity. PDF/A is supported. tick tick tick tick tick
XML Paper Specification - XPS Convert any document to XPS with high fidelity. tick tick tick tick tick
Plain Text - TXT Easily extract text by saving in plain text format. tick tick tick tick tick
Digital Publishing EPUB EPUB is a popular format for eBooks. You can convert any document from Aspose.Words to the IDPF EPUB format. tick tick tick tick tick
Printer Command Language (PCL) Aspose.Words for .NET provides support to save document to PCL format. tick tick tick tick tick

Rendering and Printing

Aspose.Words now provides high fidelity rendering of document pages.

Feature .NET .NET Standard 2.0 Xamarin.Android Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Layout document into pages with high fidelity (exactly like Microsoft Word® would do that) to all the formats below. tick tick tick tick tick
Render individual pages or complete documents to PDF or XPS. tick tick tick tick tick
Render document pages to BMP images tick tick circle circle circle
Render document pages to images (PNG, EMF, JPEG, GIF). tick tick tick tick tick
Render individual shapes from the document into raster or vector images. tick tick tick tick tick
Specify image resolution, quality, compression and other options. tick tick tick tick tick
Render pages or shapes to a .NET Graphics object with transforms, to a specific size. tick tick tick tick tick
Print document pages using the .NET printing infrastructure. tick circle circle circle circle
Update TOC, page numbers and other fields before rendering or printing. tick tick tick tick tick

Document Content Features

Aspose.Words provides a rich object model that consists of over 100 public classes, which allow you to programmatically generate, combine, modify, parse or otherwise examine loaded documents.

Feature .NET .NET Standard 2.0 Xamarin.Android Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Access, create and modify paragraphs and text. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify images, textboxes and shapes. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify tables, rows and cells. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify fields, form fields, hyperlinks and bookmarks. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify document sections, headers and footers. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify footnotes, endnotes and comments. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify Custom XML, SmartTags and Structured Document Tags (Content Controls). tick tick tick tick tick
Access and modify all document elements using XmlDocument -like classes and methods. tick tick tick tick tick
Update field results IF, formula and other popular field types. tick tick tick tick tick
Rebuild and update Table Of Contents (TOC) fields exactly like Microsoft Word does it. tick tick tick tick tick
Copy and move document elements between documents. tick tick tick tick tick
Join and split documents. tick tick tick tick tick
Get and set built-in and custom document properties. tick tick tick tick tick
Specify document protection, open protected and encrypted documents. tick tick tick tick tick
Find and replace text, enumerate over document content. tick tick tick tick tick
Accept all revisions in a document. tick tick tick tick tick
Preserve or extract OLE objects and ActiveX controls from the document. tick tick tick tick tick
Preserve or remove VBA macros from the document. Preserve VBA macros digital signature. tick tick tick tick tick
Detect and verify digital signatures in documents. tick tick tick tick tick
Insert HTML text. tick tick tick tick tick
Extract VBA Macros from Word Document. tick tick  

Document Formatting Features

Aspose.Words provides detailed programmatic access to the formatting properties of all document elements.

Feature .NET .NET Standard 2.0 Xamarin.Android Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Access and modify all character formatting including fonts, colors, effects, borders and shading. tick tick tick tick tick
Access and modify all paragraph formatting including indents, spacing, borders and shading, tab stops. tick tick tick tick tick
Access and modify all bulleted and numbered lists formatting including numbering and levels. tick tick tick tick tick
Access and modify table formatting including alignment, orientation, borders and shading. tick tick tick tick tick
Access and modify all section properties including paper size, margins and orientation. tick tick tick tick tick
Access, create and modify document styles. tick tick tick tick tick
Access and modify drawing objects including position, size, line and fill properties, image bytes. tick tick tick tick tick

Mail Merge Features

You can use Aspose.Words as a reporting solution on its own. Design your reports in Microsoft Word and then have Aspose.Words populate documents with data from various data sources.

Feature .NET .NET Standard 2.0 Xamarin.Android Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Use all standard Microsoft Word mail merge fields in your reports including MERGEFIELD, NEXT, NEXTIF, ADDRESSBLOCK, GREETINGLINE. tick tick tick tick tick
Execute mail merge for documents that contain even the most complex and nested IF fields and formulas. tick tick tick tick tick
Populate and dynamically grow tables or fragments in the document from your data source using mail merge regions. tick tick tick tick tick
Easily generate reports that contain master-detail (parent-child) data such as Order/OrderDetails. tick tick tick tick tick
Populate documents with data from any .NET data source such as DataSet, DataTable, DataView, DataReader or ADO Recordset. tick tick tick tick tick
Populate documents from any data source such as a LINQ query, XML file or business objects by implementing the IMailMergeDataSource interface. tick tick tick tick tick
Take precise control, such as number formatting, over how your data is merged using events. tick tick tick tick tick
Insert images during mail merge. tick tick tick tick tick
Programmatically create or modify a Microsoft Word mail merge data source for a document. Preserve mail merge settings and data sources. tick tick tick tick tick
Retrieve mail merge field names. tick tick tick tick tick

Reporting Features

LINQ Reporting Engine is an advanced reporting tool enabling you to generate documents based upon template documents and data obtained from various sources including databases, XML, JSON, OData, objects of custom CLR types, external documents, and more out of the box.

Key Features .NET .NET Standard 2.0 Xamarin.Android Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Support of C# syntax and LINQ extension methods directly in templates (even for ADO.NET data sources) tick tick tick tick tick
Support of repeatable and conditional document blocks (loops and conditions) for tables, lists, and common content tick tick tick tick tick
Support of dynamically generated charts and images tick tick tick tick tick
Support of insertion of outer documents and HTML blocks into a document tick tick tick tick tick
Support of multiple data sources (including of different types) for generation of a single document tick tick tick tick tick
Built-in support of data relations (master-detail) tick tick tick tick tick
Comprehensive support of various data manipulations such as grouping, sorting, filtering, and others directly in templates tick tick tick tick tick
WYSIWYG: A generated document retains the same formatting of its elements as a corresponding template has tick tick tick tick tick