Page History

{info}You will need ExcelWriter 8 installed in order to run the _Hello World_ sample.
* If you haven't purchased ExcelWriter, you can download an evaluation version [here].
* If you need to install ExcelWriter, please visit the [install page|EW8:Installation] for instructions.{info}

h1. ExcelWriter Reference in Visual Studio

Create a .NET project and add a reference to the ExcelWriter library.

# Open Visual Studio and create a .NET project (this tutorial uses a web application).
# Add a reference to SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter.dll
#* SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter.dll is located under *Program Files > SoftArtisans > OfficeWriter > bin*

{div:class=kate-style}

You can [download the Hello World sample code] to see the finished product.

h1. Template vs. Application based Approaches

ExcelWriter offers two approaches to generating, processing and manipulating Excel documents: ExcelTemplate and ExcelApplication. {excerpt}This tutorial will walk you through assigning the contents of a cell using ExcelTemplate and ExcelApplication. {excerpt}

{section}{column:width=50%}

{panel:title=Template Based Approach|borderColor=#AAA|bgColor=white|titleBGColor=#EEE|titleColor=#666}

With ExcelTemplate, we can insert our data into a specially formatted excel file.  

* [Hello World using ExcelTemplate]

{panel}

{column}{column:width=50%}

{panel:title=Programatic Approach|borderColor=#AAA|bgColor=white|titleBGColor=#EEE|titleColor=#666}

With ExcelApplication, we have a full object-model for the excel file format.  This means that we can create an excel file completely from scratch.  

* [Hello World Using ExcelApplication]

{panel}

{column}{section}

{div}

h1. Next Steps

{children:page=ExcelWriter|depth=1|style=h6|excerpt=true}