Elerium Word .NET: A Beginner’s Guide

Step-by-Step: Building a Document Editor with Elerium Word .NETElerium Word .NET is a hypothetical (or third‑party) document-processing library for the .NET ecosystem that provides APIs to create, edit, render, and export rich-text documents programmatically. This guide walks through building a simple but practical document editor using Elerium Word .NET, covering project setup, core editor features (text editing, formatting, images, tables), document persistence, and exporting. Code samples use C# and .NET 7+; adjust package names and APIs to match the actual Elerium Word .NET library you install.

What you’ll build

A desktop document editor with:

Rich text editing (bold, italic, underline, font size, color)
Paragraph alignment and lists
Inserting and resizing images
Creating and editing tables
Document open/save (native format) and export to PDF/DOCX
A basic undo/redo stack and autosave

You’ll implement UI with WinForms or WPF; examples below use WPF for richer UI capabilities.

Prerequisites

.NET 7 SDK or later installed
Visual Studio ⁄₂₀₂₃ or VS Code
Elerium Word .NET NuGet package (install via NuGet—replace package name if different)
Basic knowledge of C#, async/await, and WPF MVVM patterns

Install packages:

dotnet add package Elerium.Word.Net dotnet add package CommunityToolkit.Mvvm   # optional: MVVM helpers

Project setup (WPF)

Create the WPF app:

dotnet new wpf -n EleriumEditor cd EleriumEditor

Add packages (see prerequisites). Create folders: Models, ViewModels, Views, Services.
App structure:

Views/MainWindow.xaml — editor UI
ViewModels/MainViewModel.cs — bind UI commands/properties
Services/DocumentService.cs — wrap Elerium APIs
Models/DocumentModel.cs — metadata and state

DocumentService: abstraction over Elerium Word .NET

Create a service to encapsulate library calls so UI code stays clean and testable.

Example interface and implementation skeleton:

public interface IDocumentService {     Task<DocumentModel> NewDocumentAsync();     Task<DocumentModel> OpenAsync(string path);     Task SaveAsync(DocumentModel doc, string path);     Task<byte[]> ExportPdfAsync(DocumentModel doc);     void ApplyFormatting(DocumentModel doc, TextRangeSelection selection, FormattingOptions options);     void InsertImage(DocumentModel doc, Stream imageStream, ImageOptions options);     // ...other operations }

Implementation notes:

Use Elerium’s Document/DocumentBuilder classes to create and mutate documents.
Keep DocumentModel as a thin wrapper pointing to the underlying Elerium document object and metadata (path, dirty flag).
Expose asynchronous methods when file I/O or heavy operations occur.

Core document model

DocumentModel stores the current Elerium document plus editor state.

public class DocumentModel {     public object EleriumDoc { get; set; }  // replace object with actual Elerium document type     public string FilePath { get; set; }     public bool IsDirty { get; set; }     public Stack<IUndoAction> UndoStack { get; } = new();     public Stack<IUndoAction> RedoStack { get; } = new(); }

Implement undo/redo as command objects that apply and revert edits on the Elerium document.

Minimal editor UI (MainWindow.xaml)

Layout suggestions:

Top toolbar: new/open/save, undo/redo, bold/italic/underline, font size, color, alignment, insert image/table, export.
Left: document outline (optional)
Center: document view — use Elerium’s provided WPF control (if exists) or host a custom control that renders the document.
Bottom: status bar with caret position and word count.

Example simplified XAML snippet (assume Elerium provides a DocumentViewer control named EleriumDocumentViewer):

<Window x:Class="EleriumEditor.MainWindow"         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"         xmlns:elerium="clr-namespace:Elerium.Word.Net.Wpf;assembly=Elerium.Word.Net.Wpf"         Title="Elerium Editor" Height="800" Width="1100">     <DockPanel>         <ToolBar DockPanel.Dock="Top">             <Button Command="{Binding NewCommand}" Content="New" />             <Button Command="{Binding OpenCommand}" Content="Open" />             <Button Command="{Binding SaveCommand}" Content="Save" />             <Separator/>             <ToggleButton Command="{Binding BoldCommand}" Content="B" FontWeight="Bold"/>             <ToggleButton Command="{Binding ItalicCommand}" Content="I" FontStyle="Italic"/>             <Button Command="{Binding InsertImageCommand}" Content="Image"/>             <Button Command="{Binding InsertTableCommand}" Content="Table"/>             <Separator/>             <Button Command="{Binding ExportPdfCommand}" Content="Export PDF"/>         </ToolBar>         <elerium:EleriumDocumentViewer x:Name="DocViewer" Document="{Binding CurrentDocument.EleriumDoc}" />         <StatusBar DockPanel.Dock="Bottom">             <TextBlock Text="{Binding StatusText}" />         </StatusBar>     </DockPanel> </Window>

If Elerium has no WPF control, render with a WebView or custom control that maps document model to UI elements and handles input events.

ViewModel: wiring commands

MainViewModel exposes ICommand implementations for toolbar actions and binds to the DocumentService.

Key commands:

NewCommand, OpenCommand, SaveCommand, SaveAsCommand
BoldCommand, ItalicCommand, UnderlineCommand
InsertImageCommand, InsertTableCommand
ExportPdfCommand
UndoCommand, RedoCommand

Example command handler for Bold:

private async Task ToggleBoldAsync() {     var selection = GetCurrentSelection();     if (selection == null) return;     var options = new FormattingOptions { Bold = !selection.IsBold };     await _documentService.ApplyFormatting(CurrentDocument, selection, options);     CurrentDocument.IsDirty = true; }

GetCurrentSelection() should query the document viewer control for the active text selection and map it to the Elerium selection model.

Text formatting, lists, and paragraphs

Use Elerium API calls to:

Toggle character-level formatting (bold, italic, underline, font family, size, color)
Apply paragraph formatting (alignment, line spacing, indent)
Create ordered/unordered lists and nested lists

Example pseudo-call:

eleriumDoc.ApplyFormatting(range, new EleriumFormatting {     Bold = true,     FontSize = 14,     FontFamily = "Segoe UI" });

For lists, use list style objects:

eleriumDoc.InsertList(range, ListType.Bulleted, level: 0);

Images

Provide UI to pick an image file; then insert into the document:

Optionally compress/resize on insert
Allow drag-and-drop from file explorer into the viewer
Provide image selection UI to resize, change alignment, add alt text

Example:

using var fs = File.OpenRead(path); await _documentService.InsertImageAsync(doc, fs, new ImageOptions { Width = 400, PreserveAspect = true });

Elerium should expose image layout options (inline vs. floating). For floating images, handle text wrapping.

Tables

Support inserting N×M tables, editing cell content, merging/splitting cells, and applying table styles.

Example:

var table = eleriumDoc.CreateTable(rows: 3, columns: 4); eleriumDoc.InsertElementAtCursor(table); table.SetCell(0, 0, "Header 1"); table.SetStyle(TableStyle.Grid);

Provide UI for adding/removing rows and columns, and for applying background colors and borders.

Undo/Redo and Autosave

Record each high-level operation as an undo action (format change, insert, delete, image insert).
Push actions onto UndoStack; on undo, call action.Undo(document) and move to RedoStack.
Autosave: run a timer (e.g., every 30s). If document.IsDirty, save to a temporary file in user’s app data. On app crash, detect and prompt to recover.

Opening, saving, and exporting

Implement Open/Save using Elerium’s serialization:

Save native format for full fidelity (e.g., .elerium or .ewdoc).
Export to DOCX/PDF using Elerium’s exporters.

Example save:

await eleriumDoc.SaveAsync(path, Format.Native);

Export PDF:

byte[] pdf = await eleriumDoc.ExportAsync(ExportFormat.Pdf); await File.WriteAllBytesAsync(path, pdf);

Ensure long-running exports run on background threads and report progress to the UI.

Print support

Use Elerium printing integration or render pages to images/PDF and send to the system print queue. Provide print preview by rendering a few pages to thumbnails.

Accessibility and internationalization

Support keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+S, etc.).
Expose UI strings for localization.
Ensure document viewer exposes accessible roles and uses alt text for images.
Right-to-left support: apply bidi & RTL paragraph settings.

Testing and performance

Unit test DocumentService by mocking Elerium objects where possible.
Integration tests for open/save/export workflows.
Performance tips:
- Virtualize UI rendering for large documents.
- Lazy-load embedded resources (images) and use thumbnails.
- Batch formatting operations to reduce DOM-like churn in Elerium’s model.

Deployment

Publish as a single-file executable (dotnet publish -r win-x64 /p:PublishSingleFile=true).
Keep Elerium native dependencies bundled if any.
Provide an installer (MSIX or Inno Setup) or distribute via corporate deployment.

Further enhancements

Real-time collaboration (requires syncing layer and merge/conflict resolution)
Plugin architecture for custom import/export filters
Advanced typography, styles, templates, and themes
Mobile version using MAUI or a web-based editor backed by the same document model

This guide gives a pragmatic pathway to build a full-featured document editor using Elerium Word .NET. Replace placeholder API names with actual Elerium types and methods from the library documentation and adapt UI controls to the specific components Elerium provides.