Getting started with React Document Editor component

8 Jul 202417 minutes to read

This section explains the steps to create a Word document editor within your application and demonstrates the basic usage of the DocumentEditor component.

To get started quickly with DocumentEditor component, you can check the video below.

Prerequisites

System requirements for Syncfusion Document Editor

Dependencies

Following is the list of minimum dependencies required to use the documenteditor.

|-- @syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-react-base
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-base
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-build
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-buttons
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-compression
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-data
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-dropdowns
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-file-utils
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-inputs
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-lists
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-navigations
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-popups
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-splitbuttons
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-documenteditor
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-charts

Server side dependencies

The Document Editor component requires server-side interactions for the following operations:

• Open file formats other than SFDT
• Paste with formatting
• Restrict editing
• Spell check
• Save as file formats other than SFDT and DOCX

Note: If you don’t require the above functionalities then you can deploy as pure client-side component without any server-side interactions.

To know about server-side dependencies, please refer this page.

Setup for Local Development

To set-up a React application, choose any of the following ways. The best and easiest way is to use the create-react-app. It sets up your development environment in JavaScript and improvise your application for production. Refer to the installation instructions of create-react-app.

npx create-react-app my-app
cd my-app
npm start

or

yarn create react-app my-app
cd my-app
yarn start

To set-up a React application in TypeScript environment, run the following command.

npx create-react-app my-app --template typescript
cd my-app
npm start

Besides using the npx package runner tool, also create an application from the npm init. To begin with the npm init, upgrade the npm version to npm 6+.

npm init react-app my-app
cd my-app
npm start

Adding Syncfusion packages

All the available Essential JS 2 packages are published in npmjs.com public registry.
You can choose the component that you want to install.

To install Document Editor component, use the following command

npm install @syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor --save

The –save will instruct NPM to include the Document Editor package inside of the dependencies section of the package.json.

Adding CSS reference

Add Document Editor component and its dependent component styles available in ../node_modules/@syncfusion package folder. This can be added as reference in src/App.css.

@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-base/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-popups/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-lists/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-dropdowns/styles/material.css';
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-documenteditor/styles/material.css";

To know about individual component CSS, please refer to
Individual Component theme files section.

Adding Component

You can add DocumentEditorContainer Component with predefined toolbar and properties pane options or DocumentEditor component with customize options.

Note: Starting from v19.3.0.x, we have optimized the accuracy of text size measurements such as to match Microsoft Word pagination for most Word documents. This improvement is included as default behavior along with an optional API to disable it and retain the document pagination behavior of older versions.

DocumentEditorContainer component

DocumentEditorContainer Component is used to create, view, and edit word document. You can use predefined toolbar and properties pane to view and modify word document.

Adding DocumentEditorContainer component

Now, you can start adding DocumentEditorContainer component in the application. For getting started, add the DocumentEditorContainer component in src/App.tsx file using following code.

Add the below code in the src/App.tsx to initialize the DocumentEditor.

import * as React from 'react';
import { DocumentEditorContainerComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor';
DocumentEditorContainerComponent.Inject(Toolbar);
function App() {
    return (<DocumentEditorContainerComponent id="container" style={{ 'height': '590px' }} serviceUrl="https://services.syncfusion.com/vue/production/api/documenteditor/" enableToolbar={true}/>);
}
export default App

Run the DocumentEditorContainer application

The create-react-app will pre-configure the project to compile and run the application in browser. Use the following command to run the application.

npm start

DocumentEditorContainer output will be displayed as follows.

index.jsx

import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import * as React from 'react';
import { DocumentEditorContainerComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor';
DocumentEditorContainerComponent.Inject(Toolbar);
function Default() {
    return (<DocumentEditorContainerComponent id="container" height={'590px'} serviceUrl="https://ej2services.syncfusion.com/production/web-services/api/documenteditor/" enableToolbar={true}/>);
}
export default Default;
ReactDOM.render(<Default />, document.getElementById('sample'));

index.tsx

import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import * as React from 'react';
import {
    DocumentEditorContainerComponent, Toolbar
} from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor';

DocumentEditorContainerComponent.Inject(Toolbar);
function Default() {
    return (
    <DocumentEditorContainerComponent id="container" height={'590px'} serviceUrl="https://ej2services.syncfusion.com/production/web-services/api/documenteditor/" enableToolbar={true} />);
}
export default Default
ReactDOM.render(<Default />, document.getElementById('sample'));

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Button</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-react-documenteditor/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-documenteditor/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-buttons/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-base/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-dropdowns/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-inputs/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-lists/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-navigations/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-popups/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />   
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='sample'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

DocumentEditor component

The DocumentEditor Component is used to create, view, and edit Word documents. But here, you can customize the UI options based on your requirements to modify the document.

Adding DocumentEditor component

Now, you can start adding DocumentEditor component in the application. For getting started, add the DocumentEditor component in src/App.tsx file using following code.

Add the below code in the src/App.tsx to initialize the DocumentEditor.

import * as React from 'react';
import { DocumentEditorComponent, Print, SfdtExport, WordExport, TextExport, Selection, Search, Editor, ImageResizer, EditorHistory, ContextMenu, OptionsPane, HyperlinkDialog, TableDialog, BookmarkDialog, TableOfContentsDialog, PageSetupDialog, StyleDialog, ListDialog, ParagraphDialog, BulletsAndNumberingDialog, FontDialog, TablePropertiesDialog, BordersAndShadingDialog, TableOptionsDialog, CellOptionsDialog, StylesDialog } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor';
DocumentEditorComponent.Inject(Print, SfdtExport, WordExport, TextExport, Selection, Search, Editor, ImageResizer, EditorHistory, ContextMenu, OptionsPane, HyperlinkDialog, TableDialog, BookmarkDialog, TableOfContentsDialog, PageSetupDialog, StyleDialog, ListDialog, ParagraphDialog, BulletsAndNumberingDialog, FontDialog, TablePropertiesDialog, BordersAndShadingDialog, TableOptionsDialog, CellOptionsDialog, StylesDialog);
function App() {
    return (<DocumentEditorComponent id="container" height={'330px'} serviceUrl="https://services.syncfusion.com/vue/production/api/documenteditor/" isReadOnly={false} enablePrint={true} enableSelection={true} enableEditor={true} enableEditorHistory={true} enableContextMenu={true} enableSearch={true} enableOptionsPane={true} enableBookmarkDialog={true} enableBordersAndShadingDialog={true} enableFontDialog={true} enableTableDialog={true} enableParagraphDialog={true} enableHyperlinkDialog={true} enableImageResizer={true} enableListDialog={true} enablePageSetupDialog={true} enableSfdtExport={true} enableStyleDialog={true} enableTableOfContentsDialog={true} enableTableOptionsDialog={true} enableTablePropertiesDialog={true} enableTextExport={true} enableWordExport={true} />);
}
export default App

Run the DocumentEditor application

The create-react-app will pre-configure the project to compile and run the application in browser. Use the following command to run the application.

npm start

Document Editor output will be displayed as follows.

index.jsx

import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import * as React from 'react';
import { DocumentEditorComponent, Print, SfdtExport, WordExport, TextExport, Selection, Search, Editor, ImageResizer, EditorHistory, ContextMenu, OptionsPane, HyperlinkDialog, TableDialog, BookmarkDialog, TableOfContentsDialog, PageSetupDialog, StyleDialog, ListDialog, ParagraphDialog, BulletsAndNumberingDialog, FontDialog, TablePropertiesDialog, BordersAndShadingDialog, TableOptionsDialog, CellOptionsDialog, StylesDialog } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor';
DocumentEditorComponent.Inject(Print, SfdtExport, WordExport, TextExport, Selection, Search, Editor, ImageResizer, EditorHistory, ContextMenu, OptionsPane, HyperlinkDialog, TableDialog, BookmarkDialog, TableOfContentsDialog, PageSetupDialog, StyleDialog, ListDialog, ParagraphDialog, BulletsAndNumberingDialog, FontDialog, TablePropertiesDialog, BordersAndShadingDialog, TableOptionsDialog, CellOptionsDialog, StylesDialog);
function Default() {
    return (<DocumentEditorComponent id="container" height={'330px'} serviceUrl="https://ej2services.syncfusion.com/production/web-services/api/documenteditor/" isReadOnly={false} enablePrint={true} enableSelection={true} enableEditor={true} enableEditorHistory={true} enableContextMenu={true} enableSearch={true} enableOptionsPane={true} enableBookmarkDialog={true} enableBordersAndShadingDialog={true} enableFontDialog={true} enableTableDialog={true} enableParagraphDialog={true} enableHyperlinkDialog={true} enableImageResizer={true} enableListDialog={true} enablePageSetupDialog={true} enableSfdtExport={true} enableStyleDialog={true} enableTableOfContentsDialog={true} enableTableOptionsDialog={true} enableTablePropertiesDialog={true} enableTextExport={true} enableWordExport={true}/>);
}
export default Default;
ReactDOM.render(<Default />, document.getElementById('sample'));

index.tsx

import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import * as React from 'react';

import {
    DocumentEditorComponent, DocumentEditor, RequestNavigateEventArgs, ViewChangeEventArgs,
    Print, SfdtExport, WordExport, TextExport, Selection, Search, Editor, ImageResizer, EditorHistory,
    ContextMenu, OptionsPane, HyperlinkDialog, TableDialog, BookmarkDialog, TableOfContentsDialog,
    PageSetupDialog, StyleDialog, ListDialog, ParagraphDialog, BulletsAndNumberingDialog, FontDialog,
    TablePropertiesDialog, BordersAndShadingDialog, TableOptionsDialog, CellOptionsDialog, StylesDialog
} from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-documenteditor';


DocumentEditorComponent.Inject(Print, SfdtExport, WordExport, TextExport, Selection, Search, Editor, ImageResizer, EditorHistory, ContextMenu, OptionsPane, HyperlinkDialog, TableDialog, BookmarkDialog, TableOfContentsDialog, PageSetupDialog, StyleDialog, ListDialog, ParagraphDialog, BulletsAndNumberingDialog, FontDialog, TablePropertiesDialog, BordersAndShadingDialog, TableOptionsDialog, CellOptionsDialog, StylesDialog);
function Default() {
    return (
        <DocumentEditorComponent id="container" height={'330px'} serviceUrl="https://ej2services.syncfusion.com/production/web-services/api/documenteditor/" isReadOnly={false} enablePrint={true}
            enableSelection={true} enableEditor={true} enableEditorHistory={true}
            enableContextMenu={true} enableSearch={true} enableOptionsPane={true}
            enableBookmarkDialog={true} enableBordersAndShadingDialog={true} enableFontDialog={true} enableTableDialog={true} enableParagraphDialog={true} enableHyperlinkDialog={true} enableImageResizer={true} enableListDialog={true}
            enablePageSetupDialog={true} enableSfdtExport={true}
            enableStyleDialog={true} enableTableOfContentsDialog={true}
            enableTableOptionsDialog={true} enableTablePropertiesDialog={true}
            enableTextExport={true} enableWordExport={true} />
    );
}
export default Default
ReactDOM.render(<Default />, document.getElementById('sample'));

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Button</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-react-documenteditor/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-documenteditor/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-buttons/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-base/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-dropdowns/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-inputs/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-lists/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-navigations/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-popups/styles/fabric.css" rel="stylesheet" />   
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='sample'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

Frequently Asked Questions

• How to localize the Documenteditor container.
• How to load the document by default.
• How to customize tool bar.
• How to resize Document editor component.
• How to add a save button to the DocumentEditorContainer component toolbar