How to: Create, Edit and Delete Comments

• Sep 10, 2019
• 3 minutes to read

The following example illustrates how to add, edit and delete comments in the current document.

All the document comments are contained in the CommentCollection. Access the collection using the SubDocument.Comments property.

Add a comment

To create a comment, use CommentCollection.Create method. It allows you to create a comment with the specified settings, such as author or creation date.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/word-processing-document-api-examples-t418535

CommentsActions.cs

Document document = server.Document;
server.LoadDocument("Documents\\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
DocumentRange docRange = document.Paragraphs[2].Range;
string commentAuthor = "Johnson Alphonso D";
document.Comments.Create(docRange, commentAuthor, DateTime.Now);

CommentsActions.vb

Dim document As Document = server.Document
server.LoadDocument("Documents\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
Dim docRange As DocumentRange = document.Paragraphs(2).Range
Dim commentAuthor As String = "Johnson Alphonso D"
document.Comments.Create(docRange, commentAuthor, Date.Now)

To create a nested comment, use the CommentCollection.Create method with the parent comment set as an argument.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/word-processing-document-api-examples-t418535

CommentsActions.cs

Document document = server.Document;
document.LoadDocument("Documents\\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
if (document.Comments.Count > 0)
{
    DocumentRange[] resRanges = document.FindAll("trump", SearchOptions.None, document.Comments[1].Range);
    if (resRanges.Length > 0)
    {
        Comment newComment = document.Comments.Create("Vicars Anny", document.Comments[1]);
        newComment.Date = DateTime.Now;
    }
}

CommentsActions.vb

Dim document As Document = server.Document
document.LoadDocument("Documents\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
If document.Comments.Count > 0 Then
    Dim resRanges() As DocumentRange = document.FindAll("trump", SearchOptions.None, document.Comments(1).Range)
    If resRanges.Length > 0 Then
        Dim newComment As Comment = document.Comments.Create("Vicars Anny", document.Comments(1))
        newComment.Date = Date.Now
    End If
End If

Edit a comment

To edit the comment content, use the Comment.BeginUpdate and Comment.EndUpdate paired methods. You can add any text and insert additional objects to the comment, as illustrated below.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/word-processing-document-api-examples-t418535

CommentsActions.cs

Document document = server.Document;
document.LoadDocument("Documents\\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
int commentCount = document.Comments.Count;
if (commentCount > 0)
{
    Comment comment = document.Comments[document.Comments.Count - 1];
    if (comment != null)
    {
        SubDocument commentDocument = comment.BeginUpdate();
        commentDocument.InsertText(commentDocument.CreatePosition(0), "some text");
        commentDocument.Tables.Create(commentDocument.CreatePosition(9), 5, 4);
        comment.EndUpdate(commentDocument);
    }
}

CommentsActions.vb

Dim document As Document = server.Document
document.LoadDocument("Documents\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
Dim commentCount As Integer = document.Comments.Count
If commentCount > 0 Then
    Dim comment As Comment = document.Comments(document.Comments.Count - 1)
    If comment IsNot Nothing Then
        Dim commentDocument As SubDocument = comment.BeginUpdate()
        commentDocument.InsertText(commentDocument.CreatePosition(0), "some text")
        commentDocument.Tables.Create(commentDocument.CreatePosition(9), 5, 4)
        comment.EndUpdate(commentDocument)
    End If
End If

You can also change the comment settings by changing the corresponding Comment object properties. All the operation should be enclosed with Comment.BeginUpdate and Comment.EndUpdate paired methods as well.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/word-processing-document-api-examples-t418535

CommentsActions.cs

Document document = server.Document;
document.LoadDocument("Documents\\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
int commentCount = document.Comments.Count;
if (commentCount > 0)
{
    document.BeginUpdate();
    Comment comment = document.Comments[document.Comments.Count - 1];
    comment.Name = "New Name";
    comment.Date = DateTime.Now;
    comment.Author = "New Author";
    document.EndUpdate();
}

CommentsActions.vb

Dim document As Document = server.Document
document.LoadDocument("Documents\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
Dim commentCount As Integer = document.Comments.Count
If commentCount > 0 Then
    document.BeginUpdate()
    Dim comment As Comment = document.Comments(document.Comments.Count - 1)
    comment.Name = "New Name"
    comment.Date = Date.Now
    comment.Author = "New Author"
    document.EndUpdate()
End If

Delete a comment

To delete a comment from the document, delete it from the corresponding collection. To do that, use the CommentCollection.Remove method.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/word-processing-document-api-examples-t418535

CommentsActions.cs

Document document = server.Document;
document.LoadDocument("Documents\\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml);
if (document.Comments.Count > 0)
{
    document.Comments.Remove(document.Comments[0]);
}

CommentsActions.vb

Dim document As Document = server.Document
document.LoadDocument("Documents\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml)
If document.Comments.Count > 0 Then
    document.Comments.Remove(document.Comments(0))
End If

Tip

Use the DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.CommentOptions class properties to specify comment options. Use the RichEditDocumentServer.Options.Comments property to access the comment options. Set the CommentOptions.Visibility property to RichEditCommentVisibility.Hidden to hide comments when printing or exporting the document to the PDF format.