How to add subscript characters in paragraphs using Word Automation?

Question

I’m working on a program in C# that uses Microsoft Word 14.0 Object Library to create a .doc file, add paragraphs to it and saves it. There is a small form with a button that does described actions (see the code below). This part has no problems.

Problem:

Current text in created word file will be the following:

Some text beff = 3.0

What I need to accomplish, is creating a paragraph, which has subscript characters inside.(in paragraph above letters "eff" should be subscripted):

The final document would contain around 100 of lines like above, with different characters that are subscripted.

I found a way to subscript the whole paragraph with line,

paragraph1.Range.Font.Subscript = 1;

but found no way to implement it on separate characters.

I’m also aware that there are subscript letters and numbers in Unicode that I could use, but, unfortunately, Unicode does not have full alphabet in subscript format, so that is not an option either.

Question: Is there a way for me to accomplish the Goal and insert something like “eff“ in subscript inside a paragraph in a freshly created Word Document?

Sample code:

private void btnReport_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        Word._Application oWord;
        Word._Document oDoc;
        oWord = new Word.Application();
        oDoc = oWord.Documents.Add();


        var paragraph1 = oDoc.Content.Paragraphs.Add();
        paragraph1.Range.Text = "Some text   beff = 3.0";

        SaveFileDialog saveFileDialog1 = new SaveFileDialog();
        saveFileDialog1.Filter = "Word document|*.doc";
        saveFileDialog1.Title = "Save the Word Document";
        if (DialogResult.OK == saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog())
        {
            string docName = saveFileDialog1.FileName;
            if (docName.Length > 0)
            {
                object oDocName = (object)docName;
                oDoc.SaveAs(ref oDocName);
            }
        }
        oWord.Quit();
    }

Answer 1

Create a Word document and add text with subscipt/superscript and unzip the .docx to examine it's XML content you will notice that the text containing the subscript/superscript is placed in a separate run element.

One way to achieve this is OpenXML SDK.Once you've downloaded and installed the SDK you can use the following code:

using System;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

namespace OpenXML
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (var doc = WordprocessingDocument.Create("C:\\Subscript.docx", WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))
            {
                MainDocumentPart mainPart = doc.AddMainDocumentPart();

                mainPart.Document = new Document();
                Body body = mainPart.Document.AppendChild(new Body());
                Paragraph p = body.AppendChild(new Paragraph());

                p.AppendChild(AddRun(false, "Some text   b "));
                p.AppendChild(AddRun(true, "eff"));
                p.AppendChild(AddRun(false, "= 3.0"));
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Done...");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        public static Run AddRun(bool isSubscript, string text)
        {
            Run run = new Run();
            if (isSubscript)
            {
                var props = new RunProperties();
                var fontSize = new FontSizeComplexScript() { Val = "20" };
                var vAlignment = new VerticalTextAlignment() { Val = VerticalPositionValues.Subscript };

                props.Append(fontSize);
                props.Append(vAlignment);
                run.Append(props);
            }
            run.Append(new Text(text));
            return run;
        }
    }
}

EDIT:

And here's a Interop solution:

    using WordNS = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;

    WordNS.Document doc = _application.ActiveDocument;
    WordNS.Paragraph p = doc.Paragraphs.Add();
    p.Range.Text = "Some text   beff = 3.0";

    int start = p.Range.Text.IndexOf("eff");
    int end = p.Range.Text.IndexOf("=");

    WordNS.Range range = doc.Range(start, end);
    range.Select();

    WordNS.Selection currentSelection = _application.Selection;
    currentSelection.Font.Subscript = 1;

    doc.SaveAs2("C:\\SubscriptInterop.docx");

Answer 2

You can play around with the range's start and end point to get that job done, and even find the offset.

Range range = paragraph1.Range;
range.Text = "Some text   beff = 3.0";
if (range.Text.Contains("eff ="))
{
   range.Start = range.Start + range.Text.IndexOf("eff =");
   range.End = range.Start + 3;
   range.Font.Subscript = 1;
}

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

In Word create a Word Macro which simulates the process you want. When done look at the VBA code it creates. That code will give you the what/how on the working of the interops which need to be called.