Finding specific text or phrases in a long Word document can be a bit of a hassle. Fortunately, MS Word provides the "Find" function to locate specific content in a document quickly. You can also highlight the found content with a background color to ensure that they won't be overlooked by the readers. This article will demonstrate how to programmatically find and highlight text in a Word document using Spire.Doc for .NET.

Install Spire.Doc for .NET

To begin with, you need to add the DLL files included in the Spire.Doc for .NET package as references in your .NET project. The DLLs files can be either downloaded from this link or installed via NuGet.

PM> Install-Package Spire.Doc

Find and Highlight Text in a Word Document

The detailed steps are as follows.

• Create a Document instance
• Load a sample Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Find all matching text in the document using Document.FindAllString(string matchString, bool caseSensitive, bool wholeWord) method.
• Loop through all matching text in the document.
• Get the text range of a specific matching text using TextSelection.GetAsOneRange() method, and then set its highlight color using TextRange.CharacterFormat.HighlightColor property.
• Save the result file using Document.SaveToFile() method.

using System.Drawing;
using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;

namespace FindHighlight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Document instance
            Document document = new Document();

            //Load a sample Word document 
            document.LoadFromFile("input.docx");

            //Find all matching text in the document
            TextSelection[] text = document.FindAllString("transcendentalism", false, true);

            //Loop through all matching text and set highlight color for them
            foreach (TextSelection seletion in text)
            {
                seletion.GetAsOneRange().CharacterFormat.HighlightColor = Color.Yellow;
            }

            //Save the result file
            document.SaveToFile("FindHighlight.docx", FileFormat.Docx);
        }
    }
}

Imports Spire.Doc
Imports Spire.Doc.Documents

Namespace FindHighlight
    Class Program
        Private Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)

            'Create a Document instance
            Dim document As Document = New Document

            'Load a sample Word document 
            document.LoadFromFile("input.docx")

            'Find all matching text in the document
            Dim text() As TextSelection = document.FindAllString("transcendentalism", False, True)

            'Loop through all matching text and set highlight color for them
            For Each seletion As TextSelection In text
                seletion.GetAsOneRange.CharacterFormat.HighlightColor = Color.Yellow
            Next

            'Save the result file
            document.SaveToFile("FindHighlight.docx", FileFormat.Docx)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Apply for a Temporary License

If you'd like to remove the evaluation message from the generated documents, or to get rid of the function limitations, please request a 30-day trial license for yourself.

Word Heading can be taken as title of each part in Word document. This guide demonstrates solution to manage these Word headings and form them as a catalogue in C# and VB.NET.

In Word document, users can set some contents, for example, phrases of summary of the following paragraphs, as headings. These Word headings can be displayed in the first page of whole document and form as catalogue after arrangement so that readers can get outline of whole document. Solution in this guide presents how to manage Word headings with numbered style in a new created document in C# and VB.NET via Spire.Doc for .NET and screenshot below shows results of managing Word headings.

Heading is one of kind of styles for paragraphs and Spire.Doc for .NET provides several BuiltinStyle types for paragraphs. In this example, three BuiltinStyle types will be applied: Heading1, Heading2 and Heading3. Following, details will be presented step by step.

Firstly, initialize a Document instance and add section, paragraph for this instance. Secondly, invoke AppendText method with parameter string text and ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading1) method of Paragraph class to add text and set heading style for new added paragraph. Then, invoke ListFromat.ApplyNumberedStyle() method of Paragraph class to set number list for it. Thirdly, add new paragraph and set Heading2 style for it as the previous step. Initialize a ListStyle instance for document with Numbered ListType. Then, initialize a ListLevel instance from ListStyle and set UsePrevLevelPattern and NumberPrefix properties for this instance. After that, invoke ListStyleCollection.Add(ListStyle) method of Document class and ListFormat.ApplyStyle method of Paragraph class with parameter string styleName to add ListStyle for Heading2. Fourthly, add a new paragraph and set BuiltinStyle as Heading3 and apply ListStyle for this paragraph as the previous step. Finally, invoke SaveToFile method of Document class with parameter string fileName and FileFormat to save this document. Refer the code:

using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;

namespace WordHeading
{
    class Heading
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             //Create Document
             Document document = new Document();
             Section section = document.AddSection();
             Paragraph paragraph = section.Paragraphs.Count > 0 ? section.Paragraphs[0] : section.AddParagraph();

             //Add Heading 1
             paragraph = section.AddParagraph();
             paragraph.AppendText(BuiltinStyle.Heading1.ToString());
             paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading1);
             paragraph.ListFormat.ApplyNumberedStyle();

             //Add Heading 2
             paragraph = section.AddParagraph();
             paragraph.AppendText(BuiltinStyle.Heading2.ToString());
             paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading2);

             //List Style for Headings 2
             ListStyle listSty2 = document.Styles.Add(ListType.Numbered, "MyStyle2");

             foreach (ListLevel listLev in listSty2.ListRef.Levels)
             {
                 listLev.UsePrevLevelPattern = true;
                 listLev.NumberPrefix = "1.";
             }

             paragraph.ListFormat.ApplyStyle(listSty2.Name);

             //Add List Style 3
             ListStyle listSty3 = document.Styles.Add(ListType.Numbered, "MyStyle3");
             foreach (ListLevel listLev in listSty3.ListRef.Levels)
             {
                 listLev.UsePrevLevelPattern = true;
                 listLev.NumberPrefix = "1.1.";
             }

             //Add Heading 3
             for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
             {
                 paragraph = section.AddParagraph();

                 //Append Text
                 paragraph.AppendText(BuiltinStyle.Heading3.ToString());

                 //Apply List Style 3 for Heading 3
                 paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading3);
                 paragraph.ListFormat.ApplyStyle(listSty3.Name);
             }

             //Save and Launch
             document.SaveToFile("Word Headings.docx", FileFormat.Docx);
        }
    }
}

Imports Spire.Doc
Imports Spire.Doc.Documents

Namespace WordHeading
    Friend Class Heading
        Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
         'Create Document
         Dim document As New Document()
         Dim section As Section = document.AddSection()
         Dim paragraph As Paragraph = If(section.Paragraphs.Count > 0, section.Paragraphs(0), section.AddParagraph())

         'Add Heading 1
         paragraph = section.AddParagraph()
         paragraph.AppendText(BuiltinStyle.Heading1.ToString())
         paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading1)
         paragraph.ListFormat.ApplyNumberedStyle()

         'Add Heading 2
         paragraph = section.AddParagraph()
         paragraph.AppendText(BuiltinStyle.Heading2.ToString())
         paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading2)

         ' List Style for Headings 2
         Dim listSty2 As ListStyle = document.Styles.Add(ListType.Numbered, "MyStyle2")

         For Each listLev As ListLevel In listSty2.ListRef.Levels
             listLev.UsePrevLevelPattern = True
             listLev.NumberPrefix = "1."
         Next

         paragraph.ListFormat.ApplyStyle(listSty2.Name)

         ' Add List Style 3
         Dim listSty3 As ListStyle = document.Styles.Add(ListType.Numbered, "MyStyle3")

         For Each listLev As ListLevel In listSty3.ListRef.Levels
             listLev.UsePrevLevelPattern = True
             listLev.NumberPrefix = "1.1."
         Next

         'Add Heading 3
         For i As Integer = 0 To 3
             paragraph = section.AddParagraph()

             'Append Text
             paragraph.AppendText(BuiltinStyle.Heading3.ToString())

             'Apply List Style 3 for Heading 3
             paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading3)
             paragraph.ListFormat.ApplyStyle(listSty3.Name)
         Next i

         'Save and Launch
         document.SaveToFile("Word Headings.docx", FileFormat.Docx)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Spire.Doc, as professional Word component, is very powerful on fast generating, loading, writing, modifying and saving Word documents in .NET, WPF, Silverlight without Word automation and any third party tools.

This document aims at clearly introducing a simple “HelloWorld” demo about Spire.Doc for WPF by using Visual Studio. The below procedure will help you realize this task step by step. Before getting started, please make sure that Spire.Doc for WPF and Visual Studio are correctly installed on system.

Step 1. Create a new project.

1. Create a new project by choosing WPF Application in Visual Studio and name the project "HelloWorld". If you want to create a C# project, select Visual C#, WPF Application, if you want to build a Visual Basic project, please choose Visual Basic, WPF Application. The detail process is:

Click File → New → Project → WPF Application → Name → OK

2. Set the Target framework property of the HelloWorld project in Solution Explorer to be .NET Framework 4.The process is:

Click Solution Explorer → HelloWorld (The project that you already built) → Properties(right click HelloWorld) → Target framework → .NET Framework 4

3. Add a button in MainWindow. The default button name is "button1". You can set button1 Content property to be "Run" in its properties by right clicking it. Thus, it shows "Run" in the MainWindow. You can perform as below:

Click View → Toolbox → Button → Properties (right click button1) → Content → set the Content to be "Run"

Step 2. Add reference and project namespaces.

1. Add Spire.Doc. Wpf.dll as reference in Project. The Default location of Spire.Doc for WPF is “C:\Program Files\e-iceblue\Spire.Doc for WPF”. Details are:

Click Project → Add Reference → Browse → Choose the folder contains Spire.Doc for WPF → Bin → WPF 4.0 → Spire.Doc.Wpf.dll

2. Double click the "Run" button, you can see the following method has been added automatically:

namespace HelloWorld
{
    /// 
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// 
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
        }
    }
}

Namespace HelloWorld
	''' 
	''' Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
	''' 
	Public Partial Class MainWindow
		Inherits Window
		Public Sub New()
			InitializeComponent()
		End Sub

		Private Sub button1_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
                End Sub
	End Class
End Namespace

3. Add the below namespaces at the top of the method.

using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;

Imports Spire.Doc
Imports Spire.Doc.Documents

Step 3. Write "Hello, World!” in the method.

Add the following code to the method button1_click

            //create a new document using spire.Doc
            Document document = new Document();

            //add one paragraph 
            Paragraph paragraph = document.AddSection().AddParagraph();
            paragraph.AppendText("Hello, World!");

            //save the document
            document.SaveToFile(@"..\..\sample.doc", FileFormat.Doc);

            //launch the document
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@"..\..\sample.doc");

	  'create a new document using spire.Doc
	   Dim document As New Document()

	  'add one paragraph 
	   Dim paragraph As Paragraph = document.AddSection().AddParagraph()
	   paragraph.AppendText("Hello, World!")

	  'save the document
	   document.SaveToFile("..\..\sample.doc", FileFormat.Doc)

	   'launch the document
	   System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("..\..\sample.doc")

Step 4. Debug the project

Right click the project HelloWorld in Solution Explorer → Debug-> Start new instance → Click Run in MainWindow, a Word Document will be created, edited and opened. The string “Hello, World!” is drawn in the first line of page1.

Preview