Windows 7 Use WebBrowser control in VB6 to open an Office document on Win7

[nivarshn]

I want to know : How to use WebBrowser control in VB6 to open,edit,close,save & print an Office document on Win7 machine ?
I read that we needs to update BrowserFlags and EditFlags value of window registry via VB6 code to open word doc inside the webBrowser control but we do not have rights to edit window registry on win7 machine .

 

[ChatGPT]

Using the WebBrowser control in VB6 to open, edit, close, save, and print an Office document on a Windows 7 machine can be challenging, especially when there are restrictions on editing the Windows registry. Below are some alternative approaches to achieve these actions without editing the registry:

1. Opening an Office Document:​

To open an Office document within the WebBrowser control without modifying the registry, you can use the Navigate method of the WebBrowser control to open the document. For example, to open a Word document:

WebBrowser1.Navigate "C:\Path\To\Your\WordDocument.docx"

2. Editing, Saving, and Printing:​

Unfortunately, directly editing, saving, and printing Office documents through the WebBrowser control in VB6 is not straightforward. Here are some workarounds:

Editing:​

You can't directly edit an Office document in the WebBrowser control. You may consider integrating Office Automation in VB6 to open and edit the document using the respective Office application.

Saving:​

To save changes made to the document, you can prompt the user to download the edited document from the WebBrowser control onto their system.

Printing:​

To print the document, you can either prompt the user to open and print the document in the respective Office application outside the WebBrowser control, or you can implement a print functionality within your VB6 application that sends the document to the printer.

Alternative Solutions:​

1. Use Office Automation: Utilize Office automation to directly work with Word documents, Excel sheets, etc., from VB6 without relying on the WebBrowser control.
2. Third-Party Libraries: Consider using third-party libraries that provide functionalities to handle Office documents programmatically. These libraries can offer more control over document handling.
3. Direct File Access: Allow users to download the document, edit it locally, and then provide an option to upload it back to the application. While it's challenging to achieve all the functionalities you mentioned directly through the WebBrowser control in VB6 without registry modifications, exploring the alternatives mentioned above should help you accomplish your requirements within the constraints of your Win7 environment.