Embedding Multiple Office Documents In Windows Forms

[Pittaman]

Hello,

We're developing an application (.NET 2.0) that let's users drop documents in the application and allows users to show some document types "embedded". For example, a textfile would appear as a text box.

We also want this for office documents, and want to give the user the possibility to edit these documents inline, so they will not have to work in a separate excel window.

We've been using the Webbrowser Control for this, but this has given us head-aches because it's very difficult to make sure excel doesn't hold on to a file when it's closed (even when the webbrowser is disposed). Our solution does not work consistently (it works on one PC but not on another). Also, it's difficult to show multiple embedded documents at the same time due to the nature of the ActiveX Control that is used (I believe).

I've been looking into alternatives for using the webbrowser control such as DSOFrame and EDraw's Office Viewer Control. But most use ActiveX and have the same concurrency issues when working with multiple instances. I've seen some 100% .NET components (spreadsheet gear most notably) but most support a small subset of excel functionality and nothing for MS Word.


Has anyone experience in embedding multiple office documents in windows forms at the same time? Using the above named technologies? Does anyone know of any other good alternatives?

Thanks a lot.