About Nowhow solutions

Nohow solutions logo

Nowhow solutions AG is a small software development company located in Bern, Switzerland. Founded in 2001, the company specializes in the implementation of web-based business solutions mainly for the telecommunications and governmental market.

Challenge

Often our customers approach us with business requirements that are linked to the generation of Word or PDF documents. They require the solutions to be capable of gathering raw data from various sources (order management systems (SAP), Excel calculation tables, or even PDF documents) and transform that data into consolidated price information sheets and contract documents. Templates are used to generate uniform documents and to allow for customized layouts (CI/CD).

The Document Composer project (DOCO) was one of our projects that faced these challenges.

Solution

We realized DOCO as a web-based application using .NET technology. An intuitive user interface with a tree structure enables the users to choose from a selection of components. These are being used to generate price information sheets and contract documents (Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint).

Tree view of DOCO solution

Figure 1: Selecting in whole or in part documents

The solution was deployed using the following ASPOSE components:

  • [Aspose.Words for .NET][2], [merge complete or parts of a document][3], [Convert Word documents to PDF][4], [hide parts of a document][5] and replace texts
  • [Aspose.Cells for .NET][6] and [populate them with data][7], create Excel charts
  • [Aspose.Slides for .NET][8] form a template, [include images][9] ([generated Excel charts][10]), [fill tables][11], and hide text elements
  • Aspose.PDF for .NET: read data from PDF files
  • [Aspose.BarCode for .NET][12] including customer, product & contract information, integrate QR-codes in contract documents
Slide show with excel charts preview

Figure 2: Generated slideshow with integrated Excel charts

Experience

  • We evaluated many products to create and manipulate some sample documents. However, most of the products we found either difficult to use, were buggy or lacking in features. The simple usage and the resulting output quality were finally the deciding key factors to go with [Aspose.Total for .NET][13].
  • The [well-documented instruction manual][14] and the robustness of the [Aspose.Total for .NET][15] components led to a straightforward integration into DOCO. This helped us cut on development time more than anticipated.
  • If there were still questions, we could always rely on the [Aspose support team][16] for prompt and invaluable advice.
  • [Aspose.Total for .NET][17] allowed for no-fuss continuous development of DOCO (e.g. adding QR codes). This enabled us to meet ever-growing customer needs.
  • During the lifetime of DOCO, emerging document formats posed a risk. Frequent updates of [Aspose.Total for .NET][18] components, however, guaranteed that DOCO can [support new document formats][19].

Next Steps

DOCO is currently in a maintenance/support & enhancement phase. At nowhow solutions AG, we will continue to use [Aspose.Total for .NET][20] to create and manipulate Word documents, PDFs, or slideshows. Now and in the future – in DOCO and in other projects.

Summary

Aspose contributed to the great success of DOCO. Therefore we recommend [Aspose.Total for .NET][21] components for creating, managing, and manipulating Word documents, Excel sheets, PDF’s or PowerPoint slideshows.

[2]: https://products.aspose.com/words/net): [Create new Word documents](https://docs.aspose.com/display/wordsnet/Creating+or+Loading+a+Document [3]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/wordsnet/Clone+and+Combine+Documents [4]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/wordsnet/Converting+a+Word+document+to+PDF [5]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/wordsnet/Document+Protection [6]: https://products.aspose.com/cells/net): read the order or calculate data from Excel, [create new Excel sheets](https://docs.aspose.com/display/cellsnet/Worksheets [7]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/cellsnet/Data [8]: https://products.aspose.com/slides/net): generate PowerPoint slideshows, [delete slides](https://docs.aspose.com/display/slidesnet/Adding+and+Editing+Slides#AddingandEditingSlides-RemovingSlidesfromaPresentation [9]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/slidesnet/Adding+Shapes#AddingShapes-AddPictureFrame [10]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/slidesnet/Powerpoint+Charts [11]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/slidesnet/Powerpoint+Table [12]: https://products.aspose.com/barcode/net): [generate QR-codes](https://docs.aspose.com/ [13]: https://products.aspose.com/total/net [14]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/totalnet/Home [15]: https://products.aspose.com/total/net [16]: https://forum.aspose.com/ [17]: https://products.aspose.com/total/net [18]: https://products.aspose.com/total/net [19]: https://docs.aspose.com/display/wordsnet/Supported+Document+Formats [20]: https://products.aspose.com/total/net [21]: https://products.aspose.com/total/net