Reading .doc file without launching MSWord

Question

I'm trying to open .doc file and read its content. But i can't find any way how to do this without launching MSWord.

Now I have following code:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
object nullObject = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;
object file = @"C:\doc.doc";
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document doc = app.Documents.Open(ref file, ref nullObject, ref nullObject,
         ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject,
         ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject,
         ref nullObject);
doc.ActiveWindow.Selection.WholeStory();
doc.ActiveWindow.Selection.Copy();
IDataObject data = Clipboard.GetDataObject();
string text = data.GetData(DataFormats.Text).ToString();
doc.Close(ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject);
app.Quit(ref nullObject, ref nullObject, ref nullObject);

But it launches MSWord, any solution to do it without launching?

Answer 1

Two possibilities: either use Microsoft's spec to write your own parser for the .doc format, or use an existing library for the purpose (e.g., from Aspose). Unless you have a couple of spare years to spend on the task, the latter is clearly the correct choice.