Embedding PowerPoint documents in WPF

Some instruction on how to embed a PowerPoint presentation within a WPF application by converting the file to a XPS format and displaying this using DocumentViewer.

Step 1: Create a WPF Application

Step 2. Include the necessary references

Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint

Office

ReachFramework

Step 3: Insert DocumentViewer control into MainWindow.xaml

<Window x:Class="DocumentViewer.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">

    <Grid>
        <DocumentViewer 
            Name="DocumentviewPowerPoint" 
            VerticalAlignment="Top" 
            HorizontalAlignment="Left" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

Step 4: Convert the PowerPoint file to XPS format and point the DocumentView.Document to it

As demonstrated in the following code snippet.

For MVVM style applications it would be very similar, except we would need to bind the ‘Document’ to some object property in the ViewModel.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Xps.Packaging;
using Microsoft.Office.Core;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint;
using Application = Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Application;

namespace DocumentViewer
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            const string powerPointFile = @"E:\temp\powerpoint.pptx";
            var xpsFile = Path.GetTempPath() + Guid.NewGuid() + ".xps";
            var xpsDocument = ConvertPowerPointToXps(powerPointFile, xpsFile);

            DocumentviewPowerPoint.Document = xpsDocument.GetFixedDocumentSequence();
        }

        private static XpsDocument ConvertPowerPointToXps(string pptFilename, string xpsFilename)
        {
            var pptApp = new Application();

            var presentation = pptApp.Presentations.Open(pptFilename, MsoTriState.msoTrue, MsoTriState.msoFalse,
                MsoTriState.msoFalse);

            try
            {
                presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat(xpsFilename, PpFixedFormatType.ppFixedFormatTypeXPS);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Failed to export to XPS format: " + ex);
            }
            finally
            {
                presentation.Close();
                pptApp.Quit();
            }

            return new XpsDocument(xpsFilename, FileAccess.Read);
        }
    }
}

Running the sample program using a sample PowerPoint file shows that the PowerPoint is indeed embedded in the WPF application as shown: