With all of the theory and background out of the way, it is time to delve into some hands-on development to see OfficeWriter in action.  To follow along with the ensuing tutorial, you will need an existing instance of SQL Server Reporting Services and the ability to install the trial version of OfficeWriter available from the SoftArtisans site.  I would also highly recommend that you use either VMware Server or Microsoft's Virtual PC as a way to create a suitable working environment for any testing you would like to do.  These virtualizations solutions are all 100% free products so there is no reason not to use virtualization for testing purposes.

When you install OfficeWriter on your reporting server, it will add three new rendering extension DLLs to your Reporting Server's \bin\ directory and will modify its web.config to enable these DLLs as specialized rendering handlers.  Once you have completed installation of the server product, you will also be prompted to install the OfficeWriter Designer which you will need to do on a machine that has both access to your Reporting Server and is currently running Microsoft Office 2000 or better.