DSOFile.dll 2.0

Dsofile.dll lets you edit Office document properties without Office in Visual Basic .NET 2003 and in Visual Basic .NET 2002

DSOFile is a very cool library from MS that allows access to the COM/OLE properties in many files (well mostly Office, but other app suites use them too).

I've been using it for a number of years, but recently ran into an issue where it wasn't handling unicode characters well (i.e. Asian characters were getting munged, etc). Since I am currently in unicode upgrade/support hell, not being able to get this metadata correctly was going to be an issue...

Well doing a little searching, hoping to find a new library that did support unicode, I found that in 12/2004 MS released DSOFile 2.0. Which, you guessed it, supports unicode! Oh yeah...

Plus there are samples for VB.Net as well as VB6. And the updated source for DSOFile is included too.

Pretty much a win-win. Man I dig the Net.


Here's a snip about DSOFile if you've never heard of it:
"SUMMARY
The Dsofile.dll sample file is an in-process ActiveX component for programmers that use Microsoft Visual Basic .NET or the Microsoft .NET Framework. You can use this in your custom applications to read and to edit the OLE document properties that are associated with Microsoft Office files, such as the following:

• Microsoft Excel workbooks
• Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
• Microsoft Word documents
• Microsoft Project projects
• Microsoft Visio drawings
• Other files without those Office products installed

The Dsofile.dll sample file is written in Microsoft Visual C++. The Dsofile.dll sample file demonstrates how to use the OLE32 IPropertyStorage interface to access the extended properties of OLE structured storage files. The component converts the data to Automation friendly data types for easier use by Visual Basic .NET and the .NET Framework. The Dsofile.dll sample file is given with full source code and includes sample clients written in Visual Basic .NET. ..."

Now on to implementing this new version... :)

(via Document Properties)

UPDATE #1 8/1/2005:
Sometimes I just want to...

I actually did post about this when it came out. http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2004/12/download-details-developer-support-ole.html

I guess I'm NOT loosing it... :|

UPDATE #2 8/1/2005:
Now if only I could spell...