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Convert Word to PDF inside a MOSS Workflow - Remember Sammy Jankis

Convert Word to PDF inside a MOSS Workflow

Hi,

MOSS Workflows are great for Document Management process. There are many OOTB DMS templates in MOSS and you could leverage those activities with SharePoint Designer. I had a customer that wanted a process that used the Docx file format for authoring/approving the document and convert it to PDF file format before sending outside of the organization. My first idea was to use the Office 2007 capabilities in converting Word to PDF. You can do it easily in the Save As dialog so coding this shouldn't be a problem.

However, this will require installing Office client on the MOSS Server and this is not supported and not recommended. In my early 2003 days, I've tried to use the Word Spell Checker in ASP.Net Server and found it to be a very bad performance idea (and don't forget the many ghost WinWord.exe processes that you find in the task manager's memory) that was quickly replaced with a 3rd party solution.

So nothing in life is free – but what about licensed solutions. I would recommend checking out ActivePDF tools. ActivePDF is the leading provider of PDF generation, conversion and development tools and they provide many tools and SDK for server Word to PDF conversion. You could easily wrap the conversion process (which is very easy once you have the SDK) inside a WF Activity and allow reusing it in many places around your Document Management System.

Find it here:

http://www.activepdf.com

Bye,

Adir Ron.

Published Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:59 AM by Adir Ron
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Sunday, August 31, 2008 2:16 PM by didierdanse.net - Mes liens favoris (sites, articles, blogs, ...)

# SharePoint: Les liens de la semaine 35 (25-31 août 2008)

Parce qu'il n'est pas possible d'écrire sur tous les sujets et que d'autres le font

Friday, September 12, 2008 12:30 PM by Erik Paquet

# re: Convert Word to PDF inside a MOSS Workflow

Hi,

I am looking to do exactly the same thing with .doc(x), xls(x), ppt(x).

I tried many solutions from Bamboo PDF conversion accelerator solution based on OpenOffice to call directly office com with interopt or product like ABCPDF

Last night, I tried ActivePDF (Server + docConverter) with the Office 2007 processor to get accurate results.

As it use office 2007 on the server, we have some doubts about the process.

1. Do you have some doubts to deploy office 2007 as a processor of ActivePDF

2. My first idea was to create an EventReceiver and use the AddesItem event to stard the conversion and copy the PDF in an othe document library.  We want to build a application where author manage the source files and reader can only access the pdf files.  During my test, I work with workflow and now, I do not know which one to use.  My objective is to be sure that the conversion process is not stop if it that some times.

3.  We also want to watermark the PDF.  Should I bought a licence of the Active PDF toolkit only to do this.  3 differents products = $$$.

4. As the conversion of some documents can be long, I am looking for the best way to do this.  Call to the COM object of ActivePDF or try to use there folder watching feature.

Thank you

Erik Paquet

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