I am having a problem programmatically exporting Excel sheets that contain sparklines to PDF format.
When I manually export the Excel sheet to PDF format using Excel 2010's native PDF Exporting facility then everything works fine, but the moment I do it using simple COM automation then everything is exported to PDF with the exception of cells containing sparklines.
The weird thing is that when I add a few data bars to the excel sheet then the sparklines near the data bars are suddenly exported, but the ones further away from the data bars are not.
I have verified these problems on multiple different machines and operating systems. This may be related to the following question on StackOverflow.
I am using the following, very straight forward, VB.NET code. I have tried playing around with the various settings and variables, but no luck.
Public Class Form1
Enum XlFixedFormatType
xlTypePDF = 0
xlTypeXPS = 1
End Enum
Enum XlUpdateLinks
xlUpdateLinksUserSetting = 1
xlUpdateLinksNever = 2
xlUpdateLinksAlways = 3
End Enum
Enum XlFixedFormatQuality
xlQualityStandard = 0
xlQualityMinimum = 1
End Enum
Private Sub buttonConvert_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles buttonConvert.Click
Dim pdf As String = Convert("C:\Sparkline.xlsx")
Process.Start(pdf)
End Sub
Public Function Convert(ByVal fileName As String) As String
Dim outPutFilename As String, printObject As Object = Nothing
Dim app As Object '** In reality this is a Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application
Dim doc As Object '** In reality this is a Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook
app = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
'** Open the _document
doc = app.Workbooks.Open(fileName:=fileName, _
UpdateLinks:=XlUpdateLinks.xlUpdateLinksNever, _
ReadOnly:=True, _
AddToMru:=False, _
IgnoreReadOnlyRecommended:=True, _
CorruptLoad:=True, _
Editable:=False)
'** Set visible sheets depending on selected range
printObject = app.ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet
'** Write the file under the same name, but with different extension
outPutFilename = System.IO.Path.ChangeExtension(fileName, "pdf")
printObject.ExportAsFixedFormat(Type:=XlFixedFormatType.xlTypePDF, _
fileName:=outPutFilename, _
quality:=XlFixedFormatQuality.xlQualityStandard, _
IncludeDocProperties:=False, _
IgnorePrintAreas:=False, _
OpenAfterPublish:=False)
doc.Close(False)
app.Quit()
'** Return the name of the converted file
Return outPutFilename
End Function
End Class
