You can use a library called ExcelLibrary. It's a free, open source library posted on Google Code:
ExcelLibrary
This looks to be a port of the PHP ExcelWriter that you mentioned above. It will not write to the new .xlsx format yet, but they are working on adding that functionality in.
It's very simple, small and easy to use. Plus it has a DataSetHelper that lets you use DataSets and DataTables to easily work with Excel data.
ExcelLibrary seems to still only work for the older Excel format (.xls files), but may be adding support in the future for newer 2007/2010 formats.
You can also use EPPlus, which works only for Excel 2007/2010 format files (.xlsx files). There's also NPOI which works with both.
There are a few known bugs with each library as noted in the comments. In all, EPPlus seems to be the best choice as time goes on. It seems to be more actively updated and documented as well.
Also, as noted by @АртёмЦарионов below, EPPlus has support for Pivot Tables and ExcelLibrary may have some support (Pivot table issue in ExcelLibrary)
Here are a couple links for quick reference:
ExcelLibrary - GNU Lesser GPL
EPPlus - GNU (LGPL) - No longer maintained
EPPlus 5 - Polyform Noncommercial - Starting May 2020
NPOI - Apache License
Here some example code for ExcelLibrary:
Here is an example taking data from a database and creating a workbook from it. Note that the ExcelLibrary code is the single line at the bottom:
//Create the data set and table
DataSet ds = new DataSet("New_DataSet");
DataTable dt = new DataTable("New_DataTable");
//Set the locale for each
ds.Locale = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
dt.Locale = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
//Open a DB connection (in this example with OleDB)
OleDbConnection con = new OleDbConnection(dbConnectionString);
con.Open();
//Create a query and fill the data table with the data from the DB
string sql = "SELECT Whatever FROM MyDBTable;";
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(sql, con);
OleDbDataAdapter adptr = new OleDbDataAdapter();
adptr.SelectCommand = cmd;
adptr.Fill(dt);
con.Close();
//Add the table to the data set
ds.Tables.Add(dt);
//Here's the easy part. Create the Excel worksheet from the data set
ExcelLibrary.DataSetHelper.CreateWorkbook("MyExcelFile.xls", ds);
Creating the Excel file is as easy as that. You can also manually create Excel files, but the above functionality is what really impressed me.
Best Answer
Surely there are many options for creating such layout in windows forms. Here I share some good options for Vertical Menu, Center Container and Content Holder.
Vertical Menu
You have many options including these 2 good options:
ToolStrip
component which itsDock
property set toLeft
. Also items of the menu can have images, and you can set to show images before text or above text. You can make one item checked on click and uncheck other items. This way it's obvious which one is active menu.Panel
control containing someRadioButton
controls. TheDock
property of panel is set toLeft
and it contains someRadionButton
controls which you set itsAppearance
toButton
and itsDock
property of them toTop
. You can set theFlatAppearance
of radio buttons toSystem
orFlat
. Also radio buttons can show images before or above text.Center Container
You can use a
Panel
as container. SetDock
property of the container panel toFill
.Content Holder
Like menu, you have many options including these 2 good options:
You can use different
TabPages
of aTabControl
as content holders. Put different contents in different tab of the control. You can hide tab headers and also you can disable shortcut keys which makes navigation between tabs. Then it's enough to set selected tab of the control based on selected menu.You can use different
Form
s as content holders. Put different contents in different forms. Then you can show a form in the content panel based on selected menu. To show a form in content panel, it's enough to setTopLevel
property of forms to false and setFormBorderStyle
of them toNone
and the add them to center container controls collection and show the form. You can show and hide forms based on selected menu.