c# - Displaying a pdf file from Winform

Question

I'm just creating a simple calculator in C# (windows form)

I've created a "User Help" which is a pdf file, what I want is to display that pdf file if the user clicks on the "Help" button in the WinForm. If assumed that Adobe reader is pre-installed on the user's machine....

How to open the pdf file on button click in winForm?

I don't plan to provide this pdf file on hard disk of user. Which means that I have to embed this pdf into the calculator (winForm) and have to display it on the button click.

Kindly guide me with the best practise for displaying an embedded file in winForm.

Answer 1

You can reference the Adobe Reader ActiveX control and bundle it with your application.

Simply add AcroPDF.PDF.1 to your Toolbox from the COM Components tab (right click toolbox and click Choose Items...) then drag an instance onto your Winform to have the designer create the code for you. Alternately, after adding the necessary reference you can use the following code:

AxAcroPDFLib.AxAcroPDF pdf = new AxAcroPDFLib.AxAcroPDF();
pdf.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill;
pdf.Enabled = true;
pdf.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0);
pdf.Name = "pdfReader";
pdf.OcxState = ((System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.State)(new System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager(typeof(ViewerWindow)).GetObject("pdfReader.OcxState")));
pdf.TabIndex = 1;

// Add pdf viewer to current form        
this.Controls.Add(pdf);

pdf.LoadFile(@"C:MyPDF.pdf");
pdf.setView("Fit");
pdf.Visible = true;