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DOCX to XPS

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A question that crops up fairly frequently on an internal list is the best way to convert docx to xps. Word is obviously a great tool for that (take a look at Document.ExportAsFixedFormat in the Word Object Model Reference), but it's not always suited, for example see KB 257757 Considerations for server-side Automation of Office.

The fact that, as in this instance, Word isn't always the best tool provides a nice illustration of the benefits of moving to open formats — if one vendor doesn't have the right tool for the job, the door's wide open for others to step in an provide a solution. In this case I noticed yesterday that Ecrion has added support for .docx files in their XF Rendering Server product (last time I looked, when they announced XPS support, they had WordML but not .docx/OOXML). Not only does this example show the benefits of interoperability, and of the widening ecosystem that's developing around XPS, but it's also a nice highlight that XPS isn't just Microsoft — if we have a solution great, if not there's an increasing chance that someone else does :-)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2007
    Quick post between meetings that I wrote up before the kids headed off to school today... a week's worth
  • Anonymous
    July 24, 2008
    Nuance (and others, but I just happened to be talking to someone about Nuance) also provide conversion: http://www.nuance.com/pdfconverter/professional/whatsnew.asp
  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2008
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2008
    Great post, really helped me understand how this all works, thank you! I will come back again.
  • Anonymous
    December 23, 2008
    You can use www.alt-soft.com  Xml2PDF Server 2007 for this purpose
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2009
    Altsoft and its Xml2PDF provide Docx to PDF convertion (http://alt-soft.com/products.aspx)