Office File API & Office-Inspired UI Controls – 2022 Roadmap

Based on your votes and feedback, we’ve finalized our 2022 Office File API and Office-inspired UI Controls Roadmap. We thank you for your continued support and for sharing your needs/requirements. If you’d like to discuss the items on this roadmap in greater detail, or if you’d like to share a business use case that we don’t support, feel free to submit your comments below. We’ll be happy to follow-up.

Please note that UI-related capabilities listed on this roadmap are also available for review within the following platform-specific roadmap posts:

WinForms Roadmap | WPF & WinUI Roadmap | Blazor UI Roadmap

Word Processing Document API and Rich Text Editors for WinForms and WPF

Rotated Text Support (v22.2)

We expect to add rotated text support within text boxes and table cells. You will be able to specify text direction in code or via the Rich Text Editor’s UI (in addition to UI display and print output, you will be able to export rotated text to PDF).

Spreadsheet Document API and Spreadsheet UI Controls for WinForms and WPF

Shrink to Fit (v22.1)

We plan to introduce a Shrink to Fit alignment option across our Spreadsheet product line (Document API and UI controls for WinForms and WPF). When enabled, this option automatically reduces text size to fit a cell.

Page Break Preview (v22.2)

Our WinForms Spreadsheet and WPF Spreadsheet controls will support Page Break Preview – a separate view that displays horizontal and vertical page breaks for a worksheet. You will be able to insert/remove page breaks via the Spreadsheet control’s UI and drag existing page breaks to a new position with a mouse.

Cross-Platform Rendering Engine for Office File API (v22.2)

As you may already know, System.Drawing.Common was deprecated for non-Windows operating systems in .NET 6 and higher. See the following page for more information: System.Drawing.Common only supported on Windows.

This breaking change significantly affects those using our Office File API library on Linux and macOS (we use System.Drawing.Common to measure document text and render graphic objects including shapes, pictures, and charts). To address rendering-related issues on non-Windows operating systems, we must implement our own cross-platform rendering engine based on the SkiaSharp library. We will update our public API to use this new implementation for all System.Drawing classes not supported in .NET 6 and higher (Image, Bitmap, Font, Pen, Brush, etc.). Once our new rendering engine is available, you will need to replace System.Drawing object calls with custom DevExpress counterparts.

Please review the following blog post for more information on upcoming changes:
DevExpress Cross-Platform Products — Getting Ready for .NET 7

Office-Inspired UI Controls for Blazor

Rich Text Editor for Blazor

Mail Merge (v22.1)

We will introduce mail merge support to our Blazor Rich Text Editor in our v22.1 release cycle. Our mail merge implementation will allow you to bind the control to an external data source, preview dynamic content/execute final merge operations.

Ribbon Customization (v22.1)

We expect to incorporate Ribbon UI customization in our v22.1 release cycle. Through customization, you will be able to hide/modify default ribbon items and add custom items to the Rich Text Editor’s default UI ribbon.

Spreadsheet for Blazor (v22.2)

In the second half of 2022 we plan to release a Spreadsheet control for Blazor. As you might expect, this will be an Excel-inspired control and will allow you to incorporate spreadsheet functionality into a Blazor Server application. With our Blazor Spreadsheet’s UI and API, you will be able to create, edit and save spreadsheet documents as needs dictate.

Office-Inspired UI Controls for WinUI 3 on Desktop

PDF Viewer (v22.2)

In the second half of 2022, we expect to release a new WinUI PDF Viewer control. The DevExpress WinUI PDF Viewer will ship with the following built-in features:

• Ribbon Toolbar
• Page Thumbnails
• Page Navigation
• Text Selection
• Text Search
• Zoom Settings

Spreadsheet Control (v23.1)

We expect to release a WinUI Spreadsheet control in our v23.1 release cycle. With this new control, you will be able to create, load, edit, save, and print spreadsheet documents within your WinUI app. The DevExpress WinUI Spreadsheet control will also include the following features:

• Ribbon Toolbar
• Normal View Support with Row & Columns Headers
• Sheet Tab Selector
• Context Menus
• Row & Column Operations (Add, Remove, Hide, Freeze, Resize, and AutoFit)
• Cell Selection
• Cell Editing
• Cell Formatting
• Merge & Unmerge Cells
• Conditional Formatting
• Formulas & Formula Calculation Engine
• Defined Names
• Pictures
• Page Setup
• Print Preview
• Zoom Settings
• Clipboard Operations

Rich Text Editor (v23.1)

We expect to release a new Rich Text Editor control for WinUI in the first half of 2023. With this new control, you will be able to create, open, edit, convert, save, and print rich-formatted text files within your WinUI app.  The DevExpress WinUI Rich Text Editor will include the following features:

• Ribbon Toolbar
• Print Layout / Simple / Draft Views
• Horizontal and Vertical Rulers
• Context Menus
• Character & Paragraph Formatting
• Bullets & Numbering
• Bookmarks & Hyperlinks
• Table of Contents
• Tables
• Fields & Mail Merge
• Shapes & Pictures (Rendering & API)
• Watermarks (Rendering & API)
• Headers & Footers (Rendering & API)
• Footnotes & Endnotes (Rendering & API)
• Page & Section Breaks (Rendering & API)
• Search and Replace
• Zoom Settings
• Clipboard Operations

Your Feedback Matters

As always, we welcome your feedback. Let us know what you think in the field below or submit a support ticket via the DevExpress Support Center.

Free DevExpress Products - Get Your Copy Today