.NET - preview Excel files (XP)
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2388080
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Is there any method to preview Excel files on XP besides WebBrowser control? How does the WebBrowser itself preview them?
Solution
This issue is discussed here, and it seems there are several other options (not including 3rd party components).
OTHER TIPS
The WebBrowser itself is a Microsoft IE component and hence with a page that loads an ActiveX under the browser, the ActiveX control interacts with the MS-Office's Excel library via InterOp to display the Excel Spreadsheet on the page...The other option is to obtain a library that can read the Excel in a raw native binary format, that is interpret the binary structure and decipher what it means before showing the data...
Hope this helps, Best regards, Tom.
Older versions of Office have a limited functionality ActiveX control (Office Web Control / OWC) which can display an Excel workbook in the browser. Excel 2007 dropped support for the OWC controls.
Excel 2010 is adding new web controls which can display a spreadsheet in the browser. However, these new controls depend on Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2010.
SpreadsheetGear for .NET is an Excel compatible spreadsheet component for .NET which includes a Windows Forms Control which can read / write / edit / calculate / display / print / etc... Excel workbooks in .NET applications.
SpreadsheetGear can also display images from Excel charts or ranges of cells as demonstrated by the ASP.NET samples here.
You can download a free trial here if you want to try SpreadsheetGear yourself.
Disclaimer: I own SpreadsheetGear LLC
