Visual Basic 2012 Programmer's Reference

MANAGING DOCUMENTS

WPF includes three different kinds of documents: flow documents, fixed documents, and XPS documents. These different kinds of documents provide support for high-end text viewing and printing.

XPS EXPLAINED

XPS (XML Paper Specification) is a Microsoft standard that defines fixed-format documents similar to PDF files. An XPS reader can view an XPS file but will not reformat it as a web browser might rearrange the text on a web page. For more information, see the section “XPS Documents” in Chapter 11.

The following table summarizes the controls that WPF provides for viewing these kinds of documents.

CONTROL	PURPOSE
DocumentViewer	Displays fixed documents page by page.
FlowDocument PageViewer	Displays a flow document one page at a time. If the control is wide enough, it may display multiple columns although it still displays only one page at a time.
FlowDocument Reader	Displays flow documents in one of three modes. When in single page mode, it acts as a FlowDocumentReader. When in scrolling mode, it acts as a FlowDocumentScrollViewer. In book reading mode, it displays two pages side by side much as a real book does.
FlowDocument ScollViewer	Displays an entire flow document in a single long scrolling page and provides scroll bars to let the user move through the document.