title: Converting from rich text format to plain text problems
body: <p>We currently have an application (Windows service) that connects to another of our applications and grabs invoices. In the invoices there is a RTF field for the footer/header fields. When we grab the data the RTF is converted to plain text with the following code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static string ConvertFromRTFToPlainText(string rtfString)
  {
      if (rtfString == null)
          return null; 
  
      System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox rtBox = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox();
  
      if (rtfString.StartsWith("{\\rtf1"))
          rtBox.Rtf = rtfString;
      else
          rtBox.Text = rtfString;
  
      return rtBox.Text;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This has worked for the most part but in some cases (one particular client gets it everytime) I get this exception:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Exception Message:Error creating window handle.
  Stack trace:
  at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.CreateHandle(CreateParams cp)
  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateHandle()
  at System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.CreateHandle()
  at System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox.set_Rtf(String value)
  at SmartTrade.Common.API.Tools.RTFHelperUtility.ConvertFromRTFToPlainText(String rtfString)
  at SmartTrade.Desktop.Proxy.API.ObjectMapper.InvoiceObjectMapper.CovertToAPIInvoice(Invoice domainInvoice)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any help on why this is happening or how we can work around it would be much appreciated.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit</strong>: Thanks to Jeremy for the explanation, I am after suggestions for RTF conversion alternatives.</p>