Getting Started
Getting Started takes you from an empty Visual Studio project to a working application with TX Text Control .NET Server. Every tutorial ends with code that runs, and none of them expects you to know TX Text Control already.
TX Text Control .NET Server is a set of components for document processing in .NET. You can create, convert and change documents in code on the server, merge data into templates, create PDF documents, and give your users a word processor or a document viewer in the browser. The tutorials in this section introduce each of these tasks one at a time, so you can start with the one your project needs and add the others later.
Before You Begin
Every tutorial assumes the following setup:
- A license or the trial version. Licensed developers install the NuGet packages from the Text Control Private NuGet Feed. NuGet authenticates with the email address your serial number is assigned to and an API token, and both are in the personalized nuget.config file you download for your projects. The license is included in the packages, so there are no license files or activation dialogs. To evaluate the product, install the trial version. Its setup provides the packages in a local package source named Text Control Offline Packages.
- Visual Studio and .NET. The tutorials were written with Visual Studio 2026 and .NET 10. The document processing packages require .NET 8 or higher, and you can also work with Visual Studio Code or the .NET CLI. See System Requirements for details.
- Node.js and npm for the Angular and React tutorials only.
Core or Classic
TX Text Control .NET Server ships with two document processing engines, and you choose one by the NuGet package you install: Core (TXTextControl.TextControl.Core.SDK) runs on Windows and Linux, Classic (TXTextControl.TextControl.ASP.SDK) on Windows only. The tutorials use the Core package, which is recommended for new projects; where a tutorial needs a different package for Classic, it says so. The Document Engine compares the two engines.
Choose Your Starting Point
Each section starts with an overview page followed by step-by-step tutorials:
| If you want to | Start with | Main packages |
|---|---|---|
| Create, convert or change documents in code, without a user interface | Document Processing | TXTextControl.TextControl.Core.SDK |
| Let users edit documents and templates in the browser | Document Editor | TXTextControl.Web, TXTextControl.Web.DocumentEditor.Backend |
| Let users view, fill in and sign documents in the browser | Document Viewer | TXTextControl.Web.DocumentViewer |
| Merge JSON or business objects into templates, for example for invoices and letters | Mail Merge | TXTextControl.TextControl.Core.SDK |
| Create PDF and PDF/A, import PDFs and sign them digitally | PDF Processing | TXTextControl.TextControl.Core.SDK |
The Document Editor and Document Viewer tutorials also need the document processing package. The Document Editor and the Document Viewer are both available for ASP.NET Core, Angular, React, plain JavaScript and Blazor, and the Document Editor also for Node.js. Getting Started has a Blazor tutorial for the Document Editor, and Blazor in the Integration Guide adds the Document Viewer. Angular and React use npm packages such as @txtextcontrol/tx-ng-document-editor and @txtextcontrol/tx-react-document-viewer, and the Blazor components TXTextControl.Web.Blazor.DocumentEditor and TXTextControl.Web.Blazor.DocumentViewer are installed from nuget.org.
How the Parts Fit Together
All components share the same document engine: ServerTextControl and MailMerge process documents in your .NET code, and the Document Editor and the Document Viewer show them in the browser. A typical application designs a template in the editor, merges it on the server and lets customers sign the result in the viewer, as How the Components Work Together describes.
Recommended Order
If you are new to TX Text Control and not sure where to begin:
- Work through Create Your First Application. It sets up the NuGet packages and introduces
ServerTextControl, which every other tutorial builds on. - Continue with Simple Mail Merge or Create a PDF, depending on what your application produces.
- When your users need to work with documents in the browser, add the Document Editor or the Document Viewer to an ASP.NET Core application.
After Getting Started
- Overview: the product architecture, components, platforms and supported file formats.
- Installation Guide: NuGet and npm packages, license configuration and upgrades.
- Examples: sample applications and online demos.
- Deployment Guide: run your application on Windows, Linux, Docker and in the cloud.
- Troubleshooting: solutions to common problems.