Automate Word/Powerpoint to PDF

Question

I am trying to right code for a server to handle the conversion between most Word files and Powerpoint files (with settings on how to export) to PDF files. The most important thing is fidelity, but I am not getting a good idea from all the Websites. I am comparing Word/Powerpoint Automation Services, Aspose.Word, Interop and Oracle PDF Export?

Does anyone have any suggestions or can point me somewhere where I can find out how comparisons of these products. Also, I've been writing on linux recently so help on how to setup these Microsoft servers (just a link) would be great for helping me to write this code. I currently have a Sharepoint server and an Azure Server.

Answer 1

For doc/docx to PDF, my company can offer high fidelity output of most files, without any dependency on Word.

As others have suggested, you really need to test with your own documents. That's because the file formats have a "long tail" of features which not even Word fully supports. For example, I've noticed that Word 2010 (some point releases anyway) does not render some text boxes in its printed/PDF output!

Answer 2

I'm affiliated with callas so you should do your own research, but I can tell you that callas software has two products that can do this. Both pdfToolbox and pdfaPilot can be used to convert Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc... into good, printable or archivable PDF files.

It can be done either through a command-line app or using an SDK and there are many high-volume customers using the products (especially in the archival market where the target is PDF/A).

callas does this by automating the office applications; no, they are not made for that, but they have built a very stable product around it. And in terms of fidelity I don't know any other way to produce the same consistency between the original files and the generated PDF files. It does require that the office applications you want to support are installed on the same machine as the conversion is done.

Like I said, I'm not objective - download a trial version of either product and do some testing. There is a manual version as well (pdfaPilot Desktop) that should make it easy enough for testing conversion quality.

Answer 3

It is up to you what components is to choose. You can request a trial version and test them in the fields. Thus, you can decide which one suits your needs better. On thing is to remember:

Microsoft does not currently recommend, and does not support, Automation of Microsoft Office applications from any unattended, non-interactive client application or component (including ASP, ASP.NET, DCOM, and NT Services), because Office may exhibit unstable behavior and/or deadlock when Office is run in this environment.

If you are building a solution that runs in a server-side context, you should try to use components that have been made safe for unattended execution. Or, you should try to find alternatives that allow at least part of the code to run client-side. If you use an Office application from a server-side solution, the application will lack many of the necessary capabilities to run successfully. Additionally, you will be taking risks with the stability of your overall solution.

You can read more about that in the Considerations for server-side Automation of Office article.

Use any third-party components for implementing the task on the server.