FarPoint Spread for Windows Forms 4   The world's most popular .NET spreadsheet component

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• PDF Export
  You can print a sheet to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file using the PrintToPdf method in the PrintInfo class. Use the PdfFileName property to specify the file name and location to which to save the file.
  
  
• Floating Formula Bar and Range Selection for Formula
  You can set up a floating formula bar that end users can use to add formulas. The formula bar is similar to the formula editor available to the developer and has the appearance of a text box. The formula bar provides a list of calculation functions. It also provides a visual method of selecting cell ranges for the formula.
  
  
• Fractions (in Number Cell Type)
  The number cell can now display values in a fraction format such as 1/100. Set the FractionMode property of the number cell to display values in the fraction format. You can type values such as .01 (which will then display as 1/100) or you can type 1/100 in the cell.
  
  
• Barcode Cell Type
  You can display a barcode graphic in a cell with the barcode cell. Various barcode types are available such as barcodes that are used in retail, the post office, etc. You can set various height and width properties for the barcode display.
  
  
• Range of Cells as a Data Source and Bind Data Source to Range
• Add Row (as in DataGrid)
• Automatic Completion (type ahead) for Cell in Column and Selects
  You can set provide automatic completion (type ahead) from user input to a cell. You would use the IAutoCompleteSupport interface and its properties to provide the automatic completion feature.
  
  
• Increased Performance
• Spread Designer Updates
• Color Picker Cell Type
  You can allow your end user to select a color from a color picker using the color picker cell. A color picker cell displays a dialog for selecting a color. When a color picker cell is selected it displays a single color, which can appear either in a box or filling the entire area of the cell. Optionally text can be displayed.

• Outline Grouping
  You can set the display of the spreadsheet component to allow rows or columns to be grouped as an outline according to the headers. This behavior of the outline grouping is similar (but with subtle differences) from Excel and OpenOffice. This feature is also called range grouping since it operates on a range of rows or columns.
  
  
• Cell Note Indicator Customization
• Sheet Corner Customization
• Edit Control Style Customization (MS Excel-like focus indicator)
• Text Rendering
• New Default Header Renderers (and ability to highlight selected headers)

• Excel 2007 XML Support (XLSX)
• Import/Export Images to Excel (XLS only)
• Import/Export Validation List to Excel (ComboBoxCellType to Excel)
• Export View-Driven Version of Data to Excel with ExcelSaveFlag
• Export Alternating Rows Settings (AlternatingRow properties) to Excel

• Add DataColumnName etc. to GetPreferredColumnWidth
• Hybrid Data Model Option - by sheet of whether to use hybrid data model - sparse matrix/linear optimization for small sizes, etc.
• Events for During Resize - Add events that fire as the user is resizing columns or rows, not when finished
• Event for printing header/footer to custom header/footer per page and other enhanced printing options. (HeaderHeight and FooterHeight properties to PrintInfo as well as PrintHeaderFooterArea event for customizable header and footer printing. Event contains the page number being printed.)
• Allow user to double-click row header to auto resize the row height (as done for double-clicking column header to resize the column width).
• TickLength for Slider - so easier to see ticks and when new TickColor is changed easier to distinguish
• Enumeration to have no sorting on the filter item list
• Frozen Rows and Columns in Child View (leading only, not trailing)
• IReuseEditorControl - interface for cell types to reuse editor control instead of creating and disposing it every time
• Grouping enhancements - Ability to change text in group bar area. Group info area background event text
• New skins and themes

• Outlook-style grouping (any number of levels)
  
  You can set up the display to allow Outlook-style grouping of rows. For large amounts of data, this is helpful to display the data in the order the user needs. The user selects columns by which to sort and the component then organizes and displays the data in a hierarchy with rows organized accordingly. To select a column by which to group and display that data, either double-click on the header of that column or click and drag that column into the grouping bar at the top of the page.
  
  You can provide grouping to allow users to sort the data with multiple levels of groups by dragging additional column headers into the grouping area. You can set up the display so that the items are shown initially all expanded or all collapsed when grouping is performed. You can set the colors and other formatting of both the hierarchy names and the data in the rows when grouping is performed.
  
  
• Performance improvements
  
  We have found ways to improve performance that is most obvious when saving or loading files, working with import and export, and when working with large spreadsheets.
  
  
• New layer that allows controls to be hosted on the sheets
  
  You can place controls on a sheet (not just on the FpSpread component but on a specific sheet) to provide more interaction with the user. Anything that can be derived from the Control class in the .NET framework can be hosted on a sheet in FarPoint Spread. The child control is placed on a separate layer, the controls layer. This is separate from the cells of the data area of the sheet and is separate from the shapes and other graphical elements on the drawing layer.
  
  
• Right-to-Left support for viewports, columns, rows, the tab strip, and other areas
  
  You can handle support for right-to-left layouts in the FarPoint Spread component to support applications where the language is written from right to left, such as Hebrew, Arabic, or Farsi, so the user interface would be displayed naturally with right-to-left orientation.  Currently these aspects of the layout are changed with the right-to-left support: column resizing on right instead of left, direction attribute in HTML export, filter and sort indicators, order of columns, popup and sticky notes and cell note indicators, scroll bars, shapes, sheet name tabs, and viewport columns. 
  
  
• Event handling to allow custom painting for the sheet tab and gray area
  
  
• Annotation mode for free-hand drawing
  
  You can allow free-hand drawing on top of the spreadsheet using the annotation mode. Annotation mode allows the user to draw in free-hand mode on the shapes layer and to save the annotation on the sheet as a shape. Use StartAnnotationMode and StopAnnotationMode to turn on and off the ability of the user to draw on the drawing layer and trigger actions with corresponding events, AnnotationModeStarting and AnnotationModeEnding. You can also customize what occurs using the OnAnnotationModeStarting and OnAnnotationModeEnding methods.
  
  
• Animated (marquee) focus border
  
  You can customize the focus indicator for the active cell by using the FocusRenderer property of the FarPoint Spread component (which uses the IFocusIndicatorRenderer interface). For animated indicators, you can use the IAnimatedFocusRenderer interface.
  
  
• Renderer for gradient in header cells
  
  You can change the appearance of header cells by adding a color gradient. You can have a gradient from one color to another color.
  
  
• HitTest information for locating cursor (for accessibility compliance)
  
  You can use the HitTest method for finding the location of the cursor (pointer) on the spreadsheet component to help with development of applications where accessibility issues are concerned. Whether you are meeting accessibility standards and displaying information for the user based on cursor location, or want to provide additional interactivity based on cursor location, you can use this capability to customize the display and user interaction. You can find whether the cursor is over a part of the header, the tab strip, or a particular viewport of the data area.
  
  
• More Spread Designer enhancements
• New default action maps (extend, move, or scroll) based on screen coordinates
  
  

• New data-bindable multiple-column combo box cell
  
  You can create a combo box cell with multiple columns in the drop-down list. You can provide a drop-down list as well as an editable area allowing the user to type in values as well as choosing from a displayed list. You specify the list of items, the number that is displayed at any time, and whether the cell is editable by the user. The multiple column of the combo box can be data bound.
  
  
• Automatic completion for combo box cells
  
  Available in the VS2005 version of the product, you can customize the automatic completion feature in combo box cells. 
  
  
• New list box cell
  
  You can use a list box cell to display a list -- allowing the user to select from the displayed list. You can specify the list of items, whether to include icons to appear along with text, the number that is displayed at any time, and other aspects of the display.
  
  
• Gradient mode for button cells
• Gradient style for progress indicator cells
• Picture style for progress indicator cells
  
  

• Cell editing undo/redo
• Clipboard operations undo/redo
• Row or column resizing undo/redo

• New save sheet to HTML table
  You can save an individual sheet or a range of cells in a sheet to an HTML table in a file or stream if you need to display the sheet in a Web browser. This does not save the entire spreadsheet, only an individual sheet. This saves as much of the formatting information or presentation-related settings as possible, depending on whether that information can be translated to an HTML element or attribute.
  
  
• New save spreadsheet data to simple XML
  
  You can save the data in the spreadsheet (on an individual sheet) to an XML file or stream if you need to process the data further and want the data in a structured format.

• More formula functions bringing the total to 320 different functions
• GoalSeek capability
• ROW, COLUMN functions
• VALUE function

• More Display Options
  • Ability to customize sort and filter images
  • Color options for cell notes
  • Options for customizing tool tips in scroll bars
  • Support for a Tablet PC (InkNotation class) - Requires v1.7 of the Microsoft Tablet PC SDK
  • Customizable border style for the drop-down filter list
  • Special text renderer assembly for using the TextRenderer class in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 for GDI
  • Ability to specify tab strip location
  • Trailing frozen rows and columns
  • Ability to customize the focus indicator renderer
  • Many new shapes: arrow shapes, balloon shapes, and general shapes
    
    
• New Cell Features
  • Multiple link option for hyperlink cells
  • Pop-up calculator for currency, number, and percent cells
  • RichText cell enhancements
  • Text rotation for button cells
  • Text style for progress indicator cells
  • Allow the Tab key to set focus to the cell
  • Options for spin button location
  • Options for customizing the header in the pop-up calendar
    
    
• More Events
  • Activated shape
  • Changing Clipboard
  • Closing search dialog
  • Fetching scroll tip
  • Showing print preview
  • User zooming
    
    
• More Printing Capabilities
  • Centering option
  • Colors and images for headers and footers
  • Repeat rows and columns at top and left of page
  • Optimize printing based on page size
  • More print preview functionality
    
    
• New Formula Functions and Enhancements
  • OFFSET function
  • DAVERAGE function
  • DCOUNT function
  • DCOUNTA function
  • DGET function
  • DMAX function
  • DMIN function
  • DPRODUCT function
  • DSTDEV function
  • DSTDEVP function
  • DSUM function
  • DVAR function
  • DVARP function
  • Increased limit to 255 parameters in a function
  • The following formula functions are now volatile - NOW, TODAY, RAND, RANDBETWEEN
    
    
• More Methods
  • Option to specify a cell with a string index, such as "B1"
  • Parse method in the Model.CellRange class that converts string cell references to row and column indexes
    
    
• New Spread Designer Features
  • Stand-alone operation
  • Focus Indicator editor
  • Go To Cell dialog
  • Search dialog
  • Ability to apply only format changes
  • Drawing toolbar docks to top or bottom of window

The following features were added to version 2:  

. More Control Over Data and Display
- Cell referencing across sheets (cross-sheet referencing)
- EnableCrossSheetReference property for control
- Drawing shapes (floating objects and floating cell notes)
- FrozenColumnCount support for child sheets (set in ChildViewCreated event)
- Row filtering
- AllowAutoFilter property for columns
- Conditional formatting of cells
- Can bind to a hierarchical collections (lists) of data
- Visual styles for XP themes
- Ability to edit sticky notes to cells
- Resizing of columns when double clicking on resize cursor

. More Cell Types
- Image cell type
- Regular expression cell type
- Rich text cell type
- Styles for progress cell type
- Item data property for combo box and multiple-option cells
- Drop-down button for various cell types
- Custom mask characters for mask cell
- EditorValue property for date time cells

. More Customization of the Interface
- Customizable focus indicator
- Search capability now includes headers, notes, and tags
- Can specify the location of various cell buttons (like spin buttons, cell note indicators)
- Customizable action maps (in addition to input maps)
- Events for subeditors

. More Built-in Functions for Formulas
- Includes over 300 functions

. More Printing Capabilities
- Watermark when printing
- Printing both parent and child sheets in a hierarchy
- Ability to print cell notes
- Ability to print shapes
- Date and time options for headers and footers
- PrintCancelled event
- Paper size and paper source properties

. More Spread Designer Enhancements
- Cell names in formula references
- Shape toolbar
- Most-recently-used list

. More Events
- AutoFilteredColumn and AutoFilteringColumn events
- ChildWorkBookCreated event
- ClipboardPasting event
- ColumnDragMove and ColumnDragMoveCompleted events
- DragDropBlockCompleted and DragFillBlockCompleted events
- PrintBackground and PrintCancelled events
- RowDragMove, and RowDragMoveCompleted
- SubEditorOpening and SubEditorClosed events

. More Methods
- New options for the GetCellFromPixel method
- New options for exporting to Excel
- GetCellRectangle method
- MoveColumn and MoveRow methods
- IsAnyRowViewIndex and IsAnyColumnViewIndex methods
- ResetViewColumnIndexes and ResetViewRowIndexes methods
- SetViewColumnIndex and SetViewRowIndex methods

. More Properties
- MoveContent property in DragMove event
- AllowColumnMove and AllowRowMove properties