The Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word assembly version is higher than referenced

Question

What is the cause of the following error:

Error 12 Assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' uses 'office, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' which has a higher version than referenced assembly 'office, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\PIA\Office14\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.dll WindowsFormsApplication1

my code :

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;
using Application = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application;
using DataTable = System.Data.DataTable;
using Document = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document;
using Microsoft.Office;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var wordApp = new Application { Visible = false };
            object objMissing = Missing.Value;
            Document wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Add(ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing);

            wordApp.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = WdSeekView.wdSeekCurrentPageFooter;
            wordApp.Selection.TypeParagraph();
            String docNumber = "1";
            String revisionNumber = "0";
            wordApp.Selection.Paragraphs.Alignment = WdParagraphAlignment.wdAlignParagraphLeft;
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.Font.Name = "Arial";
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.Font.Size = 8;
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("Document #: " + docNumber + " - Revision #: " + revisionNumber);
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("\t");
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("\t");
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText("Page ");
            Object CurrentPage = WdFieldType.wdFieldPage;
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.Fields.Add(wordApp.Selection.Range, ref CurrentPage, ref objMissing, ref objMissing);
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeText(" of ");
            Object TotalPages = WdFieldType.wdFieldNumPages;
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.Fields.Add(wordApp.Selection.Range, ref TotalPages, ref objMissing, ref objMissing);
            wordApp.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = WdSeekView.wdSeekMainDocument;

            object c = "d:\\1.doc";
            wordDoc.Paragraphs.LineSpacing = 8;

            Paragraph wp = wordDoc.Paragraphs.Add(ref objMissing);
            wp.Range.Text += richTextBox1.Text;

            wordDoc.SaveAs(ref c, ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing,
               ref objMissing
               , ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing,
               ref objMissing, ref objMissing
               , ref objMissing, ref objMissing);
            (wordDoc).Close(ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing);
            (wordApp).Quit(ref objMissing, ref objMissing, ref objMissing);

        }
    }
}

Hans Olsson Hans Olsson · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-08T14:15:44

It seems like your code reference one version of Office, but is trying to use a different version. This is quite a common issue since a lot of different versions of Office are in use.

When I've had to use Office Interop, I avoid this issue by using Late Binding rather than Early Binding. This means that I don't add a reference to a specific version of Office and my code will work with any recent version as long as I'm not using a function or similar that only exist in certain versions.

This article includes basic tutorials to show you the difference between late and early binding: Binding for Office automation servers with Visual C# .NET

I'd also suggest looking at this article for more background information: Using early binding and late binding in Automation

The Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word assembly version is higher than referenced

4 Answers