> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.apryse.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.apryse.com/uwp/viewer/using-pdfviewctrl.md).
# Display a PDF in PDFViewCtrl for your UWP viewer
Learn how to display a PDF file in PDFViewCtrl with this step-by-step tutorial. Set up your project, add PDFViewCtrl, and create a basic PDF document viewer in UWP. The Apryse uwp SDK streamlines secu
In this tutorial you will be able to display a PDF file in [`PDFViewCtrl`](https://sdk.apryse.com/api/uwp/guides/html/8d6e5545-146a-ff14-0590-365981bc8abe.htm). To begin working with `PDFViewCtrl`, you must have first added it to your project and initialized the library ([get started with UWP](/uwp/get-started/integration.md)).
1. Now that the project is set up, let us add a `PDFViewCtrl` as the main feature of the project. First, we need to set up the page to contain the `PDFViewCtrl`. We want to add a main viewing area for the `PDFViewCtrl`, and an area at the bottom where we can later add in some options. Open up “MainPage.xaml” and find the Grid element. Add some row definitions as follows:The second row will be used for our options bar, while the first row will use whatever space is left to display the PDFViewCtrl.To this Grid, let's add a Border which will host the `PDFViewCtrl` and then a stack panel with a button to open a document.
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="XML" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```xml
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="XML" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```xml
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
1. Now, we want to add the `PDFViewCtrl` to the app. We do this in “MainPage.xaml.cs”. Open up “MainPage.xaml.cs” and add a member variable that references a `PDFViewCtrl`.Next, we need to create a `PDFViewCtrl`, so let's do this in the constructor of the MainPage. We also need to make the `PDFViewCtrl` the child of the PDFViewBorder.
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="C#" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```csharp
public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
{
pdftron.PDF.PDFViewCtrl MyPDFViewCtrl;
...
}
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="C#" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```csharp
public MainPage()
{
...
MyPDFViewCtrl = new pdftron.PDF.PDFViewCtrl();
PDFViewBorder.Child = MyPDFViewCtrl;
}
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
1. We also have to add a handler for the Open button. Let's do that in MainPage's constructor after we have created a `PDFViewCtrl`.Inside this click function, we need to open a Document. First, let's include two new namespaces that we need for the file picker and for the storage file.Also, OpenButton\_Click needs to be async in order to handle some of the asynchronous API's needed here. So, replace the old OpenButton\_Click with the following:
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="C#" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```csharp
public MainPage()
{
...
MyPDFViewCtrl = new pdftron.PDF.PDFViewCtrl();
PDFViewBorder.Child = MyPDFViewCtrl;
OpenButton.Click += OpenButton_Click;
}
void OpenButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="C#" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```csharp
using Windows.Storage;
using Windows.Storage.Pickers;
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="C#" %}
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```csharp
async void OpenButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Get a file from the file picker.
FileOpenPicker fileOpenPicker = new FileOpenPicker();
fileOpenPicker.ViewMode = PickerViewMode.List;
fileOpenPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".pdf");
StorageFile file = await fileOpenPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();
// Create a PDFDocument and use it as the source for the PDFViewCtrl
if (file != null)
{
Windows.Storage.Streams.IRandomAccessStream stream = await
file.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.ReadWrite);
pdftron.PDF.PDFDoc doc = new pdftron.PDF.PDFDoc(stream);
MyPDFViewCtrl.SetDoc(doc);
}
}
```
{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
Build and launch the app and we should now have a very basic PDF document viewer.
Do note that in Windows 8.1, the file picker works differently. Please see this guide for how to use file pickers in Windows Phone 8.1:
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