Excel range Style: specifying Borders via VSTO doesn't work - excel

Question

Instead of formatting ranges by setting individual formatting properties one by one, I am trying to use Excel Styles, because it seems to be faster at formatting large numbers of cells. I define a Style once, and then apply it to Ranges like this:
var cell = worksheet.Cells[row, column];
cell.Style = "MyCustomStyle";
It works perfectly for Interior Color and Font, but I am running into weird issues when trying to work with Borders. When I try to define what borders to show on a range, and how they should be formatted, I get unpredictable results, and can't find a way to control it.
The following method creates a Style named ListRowStyle;
private static void CreateListRowStyle(Workbook workbook)
{
var listRowStyle = workbook.Styles.Add(ListRowStyle);
listRowStyle.Interior.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.LightGray);
listRowStyle.Font.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.DarkBlue);
listRowStyle.Font.Bold = true;
listRowStyle.IncludeBorder = true;
listRowStyle.Borders.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Black);
listRowStyle.Borders.LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
listRowStyle.Borders.Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlMedium;
}
This creates every single border in the range (vertical, horizontal and diagonal) - so far, so good. However, when I try to display only, say, the top and bottom borders, using the following code, problems start happening:
private static void CreateEditableListRowStyle(Workbook workbook)
{
var editableListRowStyle = workbook.Styles.Add(EditableListRowStyle);
editableListRowStyle.Interior.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Yellow);
editableListRowStyle.Font.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Red);
editableListRowStyle.Font.Bold = false;
editableListRowStyle.IncludeBorder = true;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeLeft].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlLineStyleNone;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeRight].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlLineStyleNone;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlDiagonalDown].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlLineStyleNone;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlDiagonalUp].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlLineStyleNone;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeTop].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeTop].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlMedium;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlThin;
}
The color styling happens, but no borders show up. Things get even weirder when I modify the code to format the Left and Right border like this:
private static void CreateEditableListRowStyle(Workbook workbook)
{
var editableListRowStyle = workbook.Styles.Add(EditableListRowStyle);
editableListRowStyle.Interior.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Yellow);
editableListRowStyle.Font.Color = ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Red);
editableListRowStyle.Font.Bold = false;
editableListRowStyle.IncludeBorder = true;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeLeft].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeLeft].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlMedium;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeRight].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeRight].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlMedium;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlDiagonalDown].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlLineStyleNone;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlDiagonalUp].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlLineStyleNone;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeTop].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeTop].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlMedium;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
editableListRowStyle.Borders[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlThin;
}
At that point, the top and bottom borders still don't show up; on the other hand, I get a Left border that shows up, but no Right border. Uh?
So - am I doing something wrong, or is setting Borders on a Style via VSTO just not working? Note that the following code, which is a very close translation of the VSTO/C# code in VBA, works exactly as I would expect it to.
Sub Styling()
ActiveWorkbook.Styles.Add Name:="VbaStyle"
With ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle")
.IncludeBorder = True
End With
ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle").Borders(xlLeft).LineStyle = xlNone
ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle").Borders(xlRight).LineStyle = xlNone
ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle").Borders(xlDiagonalDown).LineStyle = xlNone
ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle").Borders(xlDiagonalUp).LineStyle = xlNone
With ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle").Borders(xlTop)
.LineStyle = xlContinuous
.Weight = xlMedium
End With
With ActiveWorkbook.Styles("VbaStyle").Borders(xlBottom)
.LineStyle = xlContinuous
.Weight = xlThin
End With
End Sub
This is on Windows 7, Excel 2007.

Answer 1

Try using xlLeft, xlRight, xlTop, xlBottom instead of xlEdgeLeft, xlEdgeRight, xlEdgeTop, xlEdgeBottom

Answer 2

I was trying for sometime and came across your question and got some heads-up.
Thanks for that.
Was able to create the style using the optional parameter of basedOn like below:
var activeSheet = workbook.ActiveSheet as Worksheet;
Range first = activeSheet.Range["A1"];
first.Borders.Item[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].Color = Color.FromArgb(0, 16, 80);
first.Borders.Item[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].Weight = XlBorderWeight.xlThick;
first.Borders.Item[XlBordersIndex.xlEdgeBottom].LineStyle = XlLineStyle.xlContinuous;
Style myStyle = o9Workbook.Styles.Add("MyStyle",first);
//reset the first to normal style
first.Style = "Normal";
Hope it helps someone!