Programmatically edit RTF files

Question

Hi!

I need a way to programmatically insert custom strings to RTF files/contents generated with Outlook 2007/Word with .NET.
Since these files contain huge amounts of formatting code, it isn't possible to throw in a string without regarding the RTF-specification.
Is there a possibility to do so without parsing the whole RTF-structure myself?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi m_schilder,

The RTF specification can be downloaded here.  RTF is not part of the Open Protocol Specifications which can be found at Open Protocol Specifications

 and which are supported by this forum.  Having said that, the answer to your question is that your code must have an understanding of the RTF format in order to modify a document.  You might consider, however, using the RichTextBox control to do your insertion to the document contents.  If you search on "RichTextBox" on developer forums or code repositories like The Code Project, you'll find examples and explanation of how to use the control.  Here's an example of such an article that should get you started. 

I hope this helps you.
 

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Regards, Tom Jebo Senior Support Escalation Engineer Microsoft DS Protocol Team

Answer 2

Hi Tom Jebo_DSC,

thank you very much and sorry for posting to the false forum.
I've played a little bit with the RichTextBox-Control, resulting in the following code:


System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox rtbox = new RichTextBox();

// filling my existing RTF-code to the corresponding property of the RichTextBox-control
rtbox.Rtf = item.RTFBody;

// inserting my custom string without caring for the RTF-formatting-tags
rtbox.Text = rtbox.Text.Insert(0, defaultString_start + mailItem.CreationTime + defaultString_end + "\r\n\r\n");

// writing back the modified RTF-code
item.RTFBody = rtbox.Rtf;

Unfortunately, this results in a loss of content/formatting.
It seems the RichTextBox-control removes the formatting-tags it is not able to parse/display (in my case, I've 'lost' a horizonal line and the whole content following it).

Do you have an idea, or are you able to move this thread to the appropriate forum section?

Thank you!

Answer 3

Hi m_schilder:
As Tom mentioned, RTF is not part of Open Protocol Specification. We would appreciate it if you
could try a C# or .Net forum like

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharpgeneral/threads

instead to find the information you are looking for.

Regards,
Obaid Farooqi 

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Regards, Obaid Farooqi