What is WPTools?

WPTools is a word processing component for Borland Delphi and C++Builder. It loads and saves RTF files. Its RTF implementation is one of the most complete on the component market (header/footer, paragraph styles, optional footnote support, table header rows).

But it does not only serve to edit text, it is a powerful toolset for mass mailing and, optional, RTF reports.

If you need a text component for Microsoft Access(TM), VisualFox PRO(TM), VisualBasic(TM) or .NET please use our new word processing component TextDynamic. This component has been esspecially created for .NET. It offers the same word porcessing features as WPTools 5 does. The concept of the programming API is similar. The .NET version does not use an OCX but an assembly written in C#, but an OCX is also included at no extra charge. Info: www.textdynamic.com

If you need word processing or text conversion features (RTF to PDF, HTML to PDF, RTF to HTML) on a server (ASP) or with .NET or as ActiveX please check out our product RTF2PDF. It now includes the same powerful API as used by TextDynamic.

The first version of our product was released on the Delphi market in January 1996. Over the years it has evolved further to become what you now see. First of all, HTML and WYSIWYG support was added, later we also added the page layout view and fast zooming. At the beginning of 2004 version 4.22 was released - it was the last release of a WPTools version which was still partially based on the RTF Engine created in 1996.

During 2003 and 2004 the WPCubed GmbH, managed by Julian Ziersch, developed a new word processing engine. This new engine was constructed to provide solutions for the wide variety of demands which were raised over the last 8 years and addresses issues which could not be solved within the framework of the old WPTools engine.

WPTools has been quite successful over the last 8 years and was used in a multitude of projects, both large and small. It is the only text editor which was developed in native Delphi and which supports WYSIWYG page layout view (with WYSIWYG header and footer), including support for tab stops. The competition continues to struggle to achieve the standard set by WPTools, thus demonstrating that the original concept was very good. So why was this rewrite necessary?

In-depth modifications were required to add support for new features, such as nested tables. Plus, potential .NET compliancy made it necessary to remove pointer aritmetic completely. This had been very important in 1996 to enhance performace and because the compiler did not support arrays with variable lengths. Furthermore, some parts of the programming interface had become redundant over the years and last, but not least, CSS and XML development brought new ideas to word processing, which could only be implemented in a complete re-write.

WPTools 4 had heaps of functionality, but a great deal of it was developed in an ad-hoc manner - a problem arose and we provided a solution. But the various solutions provided did not necessarily gel consistently into an integrated framework and the planned architecture of the engine.

In the end we decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity to develop a new RTF-Engine to fulfill the needs which had arisen within a structured environment.

a)	Word processing (WYSIWYG, page layout view, headers + footers, tab stops, paragraph styles, UNICODE).

b)	Special text editing tasks - most importantly, editing one text stream with multiple editors which can be on different forms.

Reporting - WPTools has the ability to dynamically create and display text during page formatting. This makes it possible to display calculated sums in dynamic table footers. Because the display changes after each reformat, this is an ideal solution for creating invoices since the report is completely editable!

Preview - The developer can insert pages from any source (owner drawn) into the displayed pages. This way it is possible to mix these pages with RTF pages and preview and print them all at once. It is also possible to have an editable text, followed by a report created by the specialized reporting engine and preview everything in the same editor!

e)	Spread sheet - WPTools has incredibly powerful and fast table support. It is fast enough to hold thousands of rows!

f)	Mail merge - It is possible to merge in text, plain or formatted and also images.

g)	HTML editing - WPTools supports additive paragraph attributes which makes it perfect for this task. In contrast to other solutions which completely import or export the HTML properties, the form of the imported HTML text remains intact.

h)	Automatic text creation. The new TableAdd function is very easy to use but still very powerful. As we prove in our "ThreadSave" demo the text creation can take place in sub threads.