Comments

xlsgen > overview > Comments

Creating comments

Comments are useful to add user-specific information to worksheets without altering the content. The Comment API in xlsgen allows the following :

ability to create one or more comments to a new or existing Excel workbook (method call NewComment, see IXlsWorksheet interface).
ability to delete an existing comment (method call DeleteComment, see IXlsWorksheet interface).
ability to delete all comments in the worksheet (method call DeleteComments, see IXlsWorksheet interface).
ability to turn on the "always show" flag individually on comments.
ability to change the background color.
ability to set a translucency flag.
ability to use raw text or richly formatted text. See here for more information.
ability to assign an author name to the comment which in turn gets displayed in Excel's status bar.
ability to set the location and size of the comment, overriding xlsgen automatic location computation. By default, Excel automatically chooses a "best location" for showing a comment when hovering the mouse onto the cell to which the comment is attached. xlsgen automatically computes a location by default, and it's used whenever the comment is set "always show" or is being edited in Excel.
ability to set the alternative text associated to the object (appears in Excel in the Web tab of the object properties)

The comment interface is described here.

It is also possible to enumerate comments, by index or by location. See the IXlsComments interface here.

Below is an example of comment creation :

VB code


' this piece of code must be added in a VB module

Declare Function Start Lib "xlsgen.dll" () As CoXlsEngine


Sub generate()

Dim engine As CoXlsEngine
Set engine = Start()

Dim wbk As IXlsWorkbook
Set wbk = o.New("sample.xls")

Dim w As IXlsWorksheet
Set w = wbk.AddWorksheet("name1")

Dim comment1 As IXlsComment 
Set comment1 = w.NewComment(3,2)
comment1.Label = "a comment"
comment1.BackColor = &H00AA4499
comment1.Translucid = True
comment1.Location 6,5,13,8

wksht.Label(7,2) = "a label"

Dim comment2 As IXlsComment 
Set comment2 = w.NewComment(7,2)
comment2.Label = "another comment"
comment2.AlwaysShow = True
comment2.Author = "someone"

wbk.Close

End Sub

C# code


[DllImport("xlsgen.dll")]
static extern IXlsEngine Start();

IXlsEngine engine = Start();
IXlsWorkbook wbk = engine.New( @"sample.xls" );
IXlsWorksheet wksht = wbk.AddWorksheet( "samplesheet" );

IXlsComment comment1 = wksht.NewComment(3,2);
comment1.set_Label("a comment");
comment1.set_BackColor(0x00AA4499);
comment1.set_Translucid(1);
comment1.Location(6,5,13,8);

wksht.set_Label(7,2, "a label");

IXlsComment comment2 = wksht.NewComment(7,2);
comment2.set_Label("another comment");
comment2.set_AlwaysShow(true);
comment2.set_Author("someone");

wbk.Close();

Java code


XlsEngine engine = new XlsEngine("xlsgen.dll");

XlsWorkbook workbook = engine.New("sample.xls");
XlsWorksheet wksht = workbook.AddWorksheet("samplesheet");

XlsComment comment1 = wksht.NewComment(3,2);
comment1.putLabel("a comment");
comment1.putBackColor(0x00AA4499);
comment1.putTranslucid(true);
comment1.Location(6,5,13,8);

wksht.putLabel(7,2, "a label");

XlsComment comment2 = wksht.NewComment(7,2);
comment2.putLabel("another comment");
comment2.putAlwaysShow(true);
comment2.putAuthor("someone");

workbook.Close();

C++ code


// note : the xlsgenLoader class loads xlsgen as a regular dll, and calls 
//  the Start() entry point
xlsgenLoader xlsgen("xlsgen.dll");

if (!xlsgen.IsInitialized())
  return;
  
xlsgen::IXlsEnginePtr engine = xlsgen.Start();
xlsgen::IXlsWorkbookPtr wbk = engine->New( L"sample.xls" );
xlsgen::IXlsWorksheetPtr wksht = wbk->AddWorksheet( L"samplesheet" );

xlsgen::IXlsCommentPtr comment1 = wksht->NewComment(3,2);
comment1->Label = L"a comment";
comment1->BackColor = 0x00AA4499;
comment1->Translucid = TRUE;
comment1->Location(6,5,13,8);

wksht->Label[7][2] = L"a label";

xlsgen::IXlsCommentPtr comment2 = wksht->NewComment(7,2);
comment2->Label = L"another comment";
comment2->AlwaysShow = TRUE;
comment2->Author = L"someone";

wbk->Close();