Options for Editing Word Documents Online

Question

What are my options for editing Word documents? We have a hosted business web application (written in C# using javascript libraries and webapi2) and our users would like some basic document management functionality. From within our application they would like to complete documentation which currently resides as Word 2013 documents.

Is there something that would allow us to upload a docx file, convert to some web friendly XML format that would allow online editing or can Office Web Apps be used directly within the browser for Word edits if the client has a valid Word license? Is SharePoint online integration an option? Or, is there an option out there that I am not aware of? Any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

If you're client have the correct licenses and that you already have a solution develop that have the basic document management features like upload documents, download, etc. Then I would opt for the Office Web Apps. This solution requires some reading and a certain architecture (it's own server for instance). But it is probably one of the best Word Document editor currently out there. You can find the basic information of the Office Web App server 2013 here

These approach will let you either use a sharepoint integration or a custom WOPI-Host. I've analysed and searched for different tools and other the Google Docs, this would be the best option currently out there.

If you actually take the Office Web App server approach with a custom WOPI-Host you can find several WOPI-Host samples on the internet:

1. MVC6 WopiHost based on marx-yu's WOPI host
2. Building an Office Web Apps (OWA) WOPI Host

Answer 2

As I know, Google Docs can help you on your issues, but you just cannot build it in your web Apps. And aceoffix can be an alternative too, which can enable your web project edit Ms Office documents full functionally.

Answer 3

To complete your task, you can use the DevExpress ASPxRichEdit and ASPxSpreadSheet controls. They support the most popular rich text and spreadsheet formats (including MS Office documents).

Both controls are web-based (ActiveX isn't required), standalone (you don't need to integrate external services in your application) and work in all modern browsers. Also, they have the built-in filemanager, so you can use them with minimum coding.

Moreover, both controls are distributed as a part of the ASP.NET controls suite, which includes a lot of other web components.