Export Shapes

DsExcel .NET provides extensive support for loading, saving, printing and exporting Excel files that contain shapes and other drawing objects embedded in the worksheets.

The IsPrintable property of the IShape interface can be used to get or set whether the object will be printed in the exported PDF document. By default, this value is TRUE and hence the shapes embedded in the Excel files are printed. If you do not want to export shapes to the exported PDF files, this value must be set to FALSE.

The Export Shapes to PDF feature allows users to print and export different types of shapes such as callouts, lines, rectangles, basic shapes, block arrows, flowcharts, equation shapes, stars and banners, etc. This feature is useful especially when the following scenarios are encountered while working with spreadsheets:

• When users have Excel files with graphs, reports and dashboards containing various shapes that they want to export to a PDF file.

• When users need to export spreadsheets that contain preset shapes, basic shapes, custom shapes and grouped shapes with different operations like rotation, flipping, connector arrows and text, etc., into a PDF file.

• When users need to export Excel template files and spreadsheets containing shapes with different types of fills (like Solid fill, Gradient fill, etc.) while saving to a PDF file.

Refer to the following example code in order to export shapes to PDF.

// Initialize workbook.
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
        
// Fetch default worksheet.
IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

// Adding Shapes.
IShape ShapeBegin = worksheet.Shapes.AddShape(AutoShapeType.CloudCallout, 1, 1, 100, 100);
IShape EndBegin = worksheet.Shapes.AddShape(AutoShapeType.Wave, 200, 200, 100, 100);
        
// Adding Connector Shape.
IShape ConnectorShape = worksheet.Shapes.AddConnector(ConnectorType.Straight, 1, 1, 101, 101);

// Connect shapes by connector shape.
ConnectorShape.ConnectorFormat.BeginConnect(ShapeBegin, 3);
ConnectorShape.ConnectorFormat.EndConnect(EndBegin, 0);

// Get second shape in current worksheet(here it's a connector shape) and do not print it(default value is true).
worksheet.Shapes[2].IsPrintable = false;

// Saving workbook to PDF.
workbook.Save(@"ExportingShapesToPDF.pdf", SaveFileFormat.Pdf);

Export Shape Text with Bullets

DsExcel .NET supports preserving bullet formatting in shape text when exporting to PDF. The exported PDF file will correctly display bullet types, colors, sizes, and other properties, ensuring the visual appearance matches Excel as closely as possible.

When exporting an Excel file containing shapes with bulleted text, DsExcel .NET automatically parses and renders the bullet definitions from the source file.

DsExcel .NET supports exporting the following three types of bullets:

When exporting to PDF, DsExcel .NET preserves the following bullet properties:

Color: The bullet color is determined by the following priority:

1. Bullet's own color (if set)

2. Paragraph text color (fallback if bullet color is not set)

Size: The bullet size is proportional to the paragraph font size. This proportion can be configured in Excel's bullet settings and will be preserved during export.

Styles: The following styles are supported for bullets:

• Strikethrough: Applies to all bullet types (symbol, automatic numbering, and customize bullets)

• Bold/Italic: Only applies to automatic numbering bullets

The following example demonstrates how to export an Excel file containing shapes with bullets to PDF. The bullet formatting is automatically preserved during export.

// Create a new workbook.
var workbook = new GrapeCity.Documents.Excel.Workbook();

// Open an Excel file that contains shapes with bullets.
workbook.Open("Bullet.xlsx");

// Export to PDF.
workbook.Save("BulletToPDF.pdf");

The output is shown in the figure below:

Limitations

Image-based bullets are not currently supported. If an Excel file uses images as bullet markers, those bullets will not be displayed in the exported PDF.