PITTSBURGH, Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ComponentOne, a division of GrapeCity, the largest component solution provider in the Microsoft Visual Studio Partner Ecosystem, has released to the web its latest spreadsheet component suite, Spread WinRT. This release extends the company's offering beyond .NET, Silverlight, and WPF by providing a spreadsheet component for use in Microsoft Windows Store applications.

"With Spread WinRT you can develop feature-rich user interfaces with an object-oriented, extensible set of classes to incorporate spreadsheet functionality into your applications," said Eric Peng, product manager at ComponentOne, a division of GrapeCity. "We expect developers will use Spread WinRT to develop applications, from front-ends to database, and give their users access to multiple sheets using many types of cells and predefined sheet styles," said Peng.

Based on Windows 8 Store applications, Spread WinRT combines grid capabilities and spreadsheet functionality. It provides an Excel-like appearance and user-interface behaviors along with a rich API for flexible programming.  "The Spread WinRT product will allow the data to tell a story through the enhanced data visualization support," said Peng. "The ability to recognize trends, isolate out-of-range values, and gain a clear understanding of your data is critical given the demands of today's business climate." Spread WinRT data visualization support includes: sparklines, conditional formatting, icon sets, data bars, color gradients, Excel-style grouping, and filtering with Excel-style dialog support.

When it comes to design time support, Spread WinRT allows a developer to create their spreadsheet layout and formatting using the rich, familiar design environment of Spread Designer. "It is now easy to create forms and add calculated cells to spreadsheet templates without writing any code," said Peng. Peng shared the simple steps involved to apply the template to a control in Microsoft Visual Studio. The first three steps can be done in the designer.  First load Excel documents, then set the conditional formatting, and then add sparklines. Lastly, apply the template to the control in Visual Studio with just a simple click of the mouse.

Availability
The company offers a no-charge, 30-day trial of its Spread WinRT control suite which may be downloaded at http://www.componentone.com/Downloads/.  There is also a sample explorer of Spread for WinRT published in the Windows Store Marketplace.

About GrapeCity
Founded in 1980, GrapeCity is an award-winning Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a premier Visual Studio Industry Partner, and one of the world's largest providers of developer components. The company has more than 850 employees and hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide. For close to 30 years, GrapeCity has provided enterprises around the world with state-of-the-art developer tools and components, software services and solutions. For more company information, visit the ComponentOne division website at http://www.componentone.com.

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SOURCE ComponentOne