We thank you for your continued support and for sharing your document processing-related needs/requirements with us. If you’d like to discuss this roadmap in greater detail, or if you’d like to share a business use case that our Office File API product does not address, feel free to share your feedback and submit a Support Center ticket. We’ll be happy to follow up.
End of .NET Standard 2 Support
With our next major update v23.2 (December 2023), our assemblies will not be built against this target. Learn more about this change in the following blog post: .NET — .NET Standard 2.0 Deprecation, Support for .NET 6 or .NET 8 (LTS) in DevExpress Libraries (v23.2).
Word Processing — Content Controls
We understand the importance of robust content control objects– tools that offer additional flexibility and control over document generation. Our next release will introduce a comprehensive set of content controls:
- Rich Text
- Plain Text
- Combo Box
- Drop-Down List
- Date Picker
- Check Box
These content controls will allow users to create structured and interactive documents with ease. You will have options to manage content controls in Word documents using either associated APIs or the RichEdit’s UI.
Word Processing — Protected Section Enhancements
To address the need for document security and control, we are planning enhancements to protected sections in our Word Document API. In our next major update (v23.2), we will enhance our APIs to manage protection for multiple sections within a single document.
Additionally, we plan to add the ability to allow filling in forms within protected sections (to provide a convenient method for filling out generated forms).
Word Processing — Support SVG
In response to the growing demand for scalable and visually appealing document graphics, we expect to ship native SVG support in our v23.2 release. This feature will allow users to seamlessly import, edit, and manipulate SVG images within their documents (and export them to PDF).
Spreadsheet — Form Controls
We expect to support additional form control types and also offer new APIs and UI elements for interaction purposes. We plan to support the following Form Controls:
- CheckBox
- ComboBox
- Spin Button
- ListBox
- Option Button
Spreadsheet — Chart Enchancements
We expect to implement the following chart-related enhancements in our Excel Spreadsheet API and Spreadsheet Controls (WinForms and WPF):
- Error bar rendering
- Rotated axis labels
- Rich text formatting in axis and labels
PDF Document API
Digital Signature Validation API
We will offer a subset of the API to validate signatures in a PDF document: obtain the signer’s identity, signature validity, signing time, etc.
Free Text Annotation Font API
We will introduce APIs to modify free text annotation font settings.
PDF/A Export
With our next major update, our PDF Document API will allow you to generate PDF/A2-b and PDF/A-3b documents.
Your Feedback Matters
Please complete the following survey and help us shape the direction of PDF Document API features: