Office Inspired Controls and File API – Early Access Preview (v19.2)

In this post, we'll detail some of the features we expect to ship in our next major release (v19.2) and invite active Universal and DXperience Subscribers to test new functionality before we complete our current dev cycle.

As always, we thank you for choosing our Office components and for placing your faith in DevExpress.

Word Processing – Hyphenation

Our Word Processing Document API, WinForms Rich Text Editor and WPF Rich Text Editor now support soft hyphens and automatic hyphenation. You can load, print and export documents with soft hyphens, or insert hyphens within the UI (WinForms & WPF) using the Ctrl+- shortcut.

Link a dictionary that specifies hyphenation rules to enable automatic hyphenation. Please refer to the hyphenation-simple-example repository for a sample project.

Once you provide hyphenation dictionaries, you can enable or suppress automatic hyphenation in code or within the UI (WinForms & WPF).

Spreadsheet – Excel Binary Workbook (XLSB) Support

The Spreadsheet Document API, WinForms Spreadsheet and WPF Spreadsheet controls now support the XLSB (BIFF12) format. Give it a try and load and save your documents using this format.

Note: the Early Access Preview build has the following limitations:

• Encryption is not supported for XLSB documents;
• Slicers will be stripped from your binary files.

Spreadsheet – Status Bar

This release includes a new Status Bar for both the DevExpress WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet control. This status bar allows you to zoom (in or out) the current worksheet. When you select two or more cells with numeric data, the status bar displays the following summary information:

• Number of selected cells (Count)
• Number of selected cells with numerical values (Numerical Count)
• Average
• Minimum value (MIN)
• Maximum value (MAX)
• Sum

The Customize Status Bar context menu for our WPF Spreadsheet control allows you to show of hide status bar entries.

You can generate the status bar at design or runtime.

Please note that the status bar can only be displayed when using our Ribbon command UI.

PDF Document API – Custom Properties

The PDF Document API allows you to manage a document’s custom property collection. Use PdfDocument.CustomProperties to access the collection. You can add and delete custom properties or change associated names or values.

Please check the pdf-document-api-custom-properties repository for a sample project.

// Add new property
document.CustomProperties.Add("NumberOfCopies", "3");

// Modify the CompanyEmail property value:
if (document.CustomProperties.ContainsKey("CompanyEmail"))
    document.CustomProperties["CompanyEmail"] = "clientservices@devexpress.com";

// Remove the HasImages property:
document.CustomProperties.Remove("HasImages");

Get Started Today

If you own an active Universal or DXperience subscription, you can download our Early Access Preview build via the DevExpress Download Manager.

As always, your feedback will help us deliver the best possible build. Should you have questions about these new features, or should you experience technical issues during the Early Access Preview, please contact us via the DevExpress Support Center or the comment section below.

Free DevExpress Products – Get Your Copy Today