C#/VB.NET: Add Background Color or Picture to Word Documents

Sometimes, a Word document with a blank background may look tedious to readers. Adding a background color or picture to the document can help you make it more vivid and appealing. In this article, I will demonstrate how to add background color or picture to Word documents in C# and VB.NET.

• Add a Background Color to a Word Document
• Add a Gradient Background to a Word Document
• Add a Background Picture to a Word Document

Installation

To add background color or picture to Word documents, this article uses Free Spire.Doc for .NET. You can install Free Spire.Doc for .NET via NuGet by selecting Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console, and then executing the following command:

PM> Install-Package FreeSpire.Doc

Alternatively, you can also download the DLL files of Free Spire.Doc for .NET from the official website, extract the package and then add the DLL files under the Bin folder to your project as references.

Add a Background Color to a Word Document in C# and VB.NET

The following are the steps to add a background color to a Word document:

• Initialize an instance of Document class.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Set the background type as color through Document.Background.Type property.
• Set the background color through Document.Background.Color property.
• Save the result document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

C#

using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using System.Drawing;

namespace SetBackgroundColor
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Document instance
            Document doc = new Document();
            //Load a Word document
            doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx");

            //Set the background type as color
            doc.Background.Type = BackgroundType.Color;
            //Set the background color
            doc.Background.Color = Color.LightSeaGreen;

            //Save the result document
            doc.SaveToFile("AddBackgroundColor.docx", FileFormat.Docx2013);
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports Spire.Doc
Imports Spire.Doc.Documents
Imports System.Drawing

Namespace SetBackgroundColor
    Friend Class Program
        Private Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
            'Create a Document instance
            Dim doc As Document = New Document()
            'Load a Word document
            doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx")

            'Set the background type as color
            doc.Background.Type = BackgroundType.Color
            'Set the background color
            doc.Background.Color = Color.LightSeaGreen

            'Save the result document
            doc.SaveToFile("AddBackgroundColor.docx", FileFormat.Docx2013)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Add a Gradient Background to a Word Document in C# and VB.NET

The following are the steps to add a gradient background to a Word document:

• Initialize an instance of Document class.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get the document background through Document.Background property.
• Set the background type as gradient through Background.Type property.
• Set two gradient colors through Background.Gradient.Color1 and Background.Gradient.Color2 properties.
• Set shading variant through Background.Gradient.ShadingVariant property.
• Set shading style through Background.Gradient.ShadingStyle property.
• Save the result document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

C#

using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using System.Drawing;

namespace SetGradientBackground
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Document instance
            Document doc = new Document();
            //Load a Word document
            doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx");

            //Get the document background
            Background background = doc.Background;

            //Set the background type as Gradient
            background.Type = BackgroundType.Gradient;
            
            //Set two gradient colors
            background.Gradient.Color1 = Color.LightSkyBlue;
            background.Gradient.Color2 = Color.PaleGreen;

            //Set shading variant
            background.Gradient.ShadingVariant = GradientShadingVariant.ShadingMiddle;
            //Set shading style
            background.Gradient.ShadingStyle = GradientShadingStyle.FromCenter;

            //Save the result document
            doc.SaveToFile("AddGradientBackground.docx", FileFormat.Docx2013);
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports Spire.Doc
Imports Spire.Doc.Documents
Imports System.Drawing

Namespace SetGradientBackground
    Friend Class Program
        Private Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
            'Create a Document instance
            Dim doc As Document = New Document()
            'Load a Word document
            doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx")

            'Get the document background
            Dim background As Background = doc.Background

            'Set the background type as Gradient
            background.Type = BackgroundType.Gradient

            'Set two gradient colors
            background.Gradient.Color1 = Color.LightSkyBlue
            background.Gradient.Color2 = Color.PaleGreen

            'Set shading variant
            background.Gradient.ShadingVariant = GradientShadingVariant.ShadingMiddle
            'Set shading style
            background.Gradient.ShadingStyle = GradientShadingStyle.FromCenter

            'Save the result document
            doc.SaveToFile("AddGradientBackground.docx", FileFormat.Docx2013)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Add a Background Picture to a Word Document in C# and VB.NET

The following are the steps to add a background picture to a Word document:

• Initialize an instance of Document class.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get the document background through Document.Background property.
• Set the background type as picture through Background.Type property.
• Set the background picture through Background.Picture property.
• Save the result document through Document.SaveToFile() method.

C#

using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using System.Drawing;

namespace SetBackgroundPicture
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Document instance
            Document doc = new Document();
            //Load a Word document
            doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx");

            //Get the document background
            Background background = doc.Background;

            //Set the background type as picture
            background.Type = BackgroundType.Picture;
            //Set background picture
            background.Picture = Image.FromFile("bgd.png");

            //Save the result document
            doc.SaveToFile("AddBackgroundPicture.docx", FileFormat.Docx2013);
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports Spire.Doc
Imports Spire.Doc.Documents

Namespace SetBackgroundPicture
    Friend Class Program
        Private Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
            'Create a Document instance
            Dim doc As Document = New Document()
            'Load a Word document
            doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx")

            'Get the document background
            Dim background As Background = doc.Background

            'Set the background type as picture
            background.Type = BackgroundType.Picture
            'Set background picture
            background.Picture = Image.FromFile("bgd.png")

            'Save the result document
            doc.SaveToFile("AddBackgroundPicture.docx", FileFormat.Docx2013)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Java: Delete Blank Rows, Columns and Cells from Excel

When importing data from a database into Excel, you may encounter blank rows, columns or cells in the result file. The presence of blank rows, columns, or cells in Excel can be a visual annoyance. More importantly, it may let Excel misunderstand data ranges and cause errors when applying certain functions. In this article, I will demonstrate how to delete blank rows, columns and cells from Excel using Java.

Add Dependencies

This article uses Free Spire.XLS for Java to detect and remove blank rows, columns and cells from Excel. Before coding, you need to add needed dependencies for including Free Spire.XLS for Java  into your Java project. There are two ways to do that.

Method 1: If you are using maven, you can easily import the JAR file in your application by adding the following code to your project’s pom.xml file.

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>com.e-iceblue</id>
        <name>e-iceblue</name>
        <url>https://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
        <artifactId>spire.xls.free</artifactId>
        <version>5.1.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Method 2: If you are not using maven, you can download the JAR file from the official website, extract the zip file and then import the Spire.Xls.jar file under the lib folder into your project as a dependency.

Delete Blank Rows from Excel in Java

The following are the steps to delete blank rows in Excel:

• Initialize an instance of the Workbook class.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.loadFromFile() method.
• Get the desired worksheet that contains blank rows using Workbook.getWorksheets().get(sheetIndex) method.
• Loop through all rows in the worksheet.
• Check if the current row is blank or not using Worksheet.getRows()[rowIndex].isBlank() method. If the result is true, remove it using Worksheet.deleteRow(rowIndex) method. Note the row index here is 1-based.
• Save the result file using Workbook.saveToFile() method.

import com.spire.xls.ExcelVersion;
import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;

public class DeleteBlankRows {
    public static void main(String []args){
        //Instantiate a Workbook object
        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
        //Load the Excel file
        workbook.loadFromFile("Sample2.xlsx");

        //Get the first worksheet
        Worksheet sheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

        //Loop through all rows in the worksheet
        for (int i = sheet.getRows().length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            //Check if the current row is blank
            if (sheet.getRows()[i].isBlank())
            {
                //Delete the blank row
                sheet.deleteRow(i + 1); 
            }
        }
        
        //Save the result file
        workbook.saveToFile("DeleteBlankRows.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2013);
    }
}

Delete Blank Rows from Excel using Java

Delete Blank Columns from Excel in Java

The following are the steps to delete blank columns from Excel:

• Initialize an instance of the Workbook class.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.loadFromFile() method.
• Get the desired worksheet that contains blank columns using Workbook.getWorksheets().get(sheetIndex) method.
• Loop through all columns in the worksheet.
• Check if the current column is blank or not using Worksheet.getColumns()[columnIndex].isBlank() method. If the result is true, remove it using Worksheet.deleteColumn(columnIndex) method. Note the column index here is 1-based.
• Save the result file using Workbook.saveToFile() method.

import com.spire.xls.ExcelVersion;
import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;

public class DeleteBlankColumns {
    public static void main(String []args){
        //Instantiate a Workbook object
        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
        //Load the Excel file
        workbook.loadFromFile("Sample2.xlsx");

        //Get the first worksheet
        Worksheet sheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

        //Loop through all rows in the worksheet
        for (int i = sheet.getColumns().length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            //Check if the current row is blank
            if (sheet.getColumns()[i].isBlank())
            {
                //Delete the blank row
                sheet.deleteColumn(i + 1);
            }
        }

        //Save the result file
        workbook.saveToFile("DeleteBlankColumns.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2013);
    }
}

Delete Blank Columns from Excel using Java

Delete Blank Cells from Excel in Java

The following are the steps to delete blank cells from Excel:

• Initialize an instance of the Workbook class.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.loadFromFile() method.
• Get the worksheet that contains blank cells using Workbook.getWorksheets().get(sheetIndex) method.
• Loop through the rows and columns in the worksheet.
• Access the current cell using Worksheet.getCellRange(rowIndex, columnIndex) method. Note the row index and column index here are 1-based.
• Check if the current cell is blank or not using CellRange.isBlank() method. If the result is true, remove it using Worksheet.deleteRange(CellRange, DeleteOption) method.
• Save the result file using Workbook.saveToFile() method.

import com.spire.xls.*;

public class DeleteBlankCells {
    public static void main(String []args){
        //Instantiate a Workbook object
        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
        //Load the Excel file
        workbook.loadFromFile("Sample1.xlsx");

        //Get the first worksheet
        Worksheet sheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

        //Get the row count
        int maxRow = sheet.getRows().length;
        //Get the column count
        int maxColumn = sheet.getColumns().length;

        //Loop through the rows and columns
        for (int i = maxRow - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            for (int j = maxColumn - 1; j >= 0; j--)
            {
                //Get the current cell
                CellRange cell = sheet.getCellRange(i + 1, j + 1);
                //Determine if the cell is blank or not
                if (cell.isBlank())
                {
                    //Remove the blank cell with DeleteOption (MoveLeft/MoveUp)
                    sheet.deleteRange(cell, DeleteOption.MoveLeft);
                }
            }
        }

        //Save the result file
        workbook.saveToFile("DeleteBlankCells.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2013);
    }
}

Delete Blank Cells from Excel using Java