Requirements for docked preview pane viewing of office files

[freecicero]

I am a lifetime licensee who is one of those who is excited to get this feature, but I seem to be experiencing problems in getting previews of my common "office" files - with extensions doc and xls.

I have office 2003 installed and use doc and xls files every day. Is there a trick to getting it to display previews of this type of file? I looked through the forum and different help pages and see that it is necessary to install the native program, but all I get in the preview panel is a grey screen with the simple message "Cannot preview." It might help to say that I am running Windows XP.

Any help will be greatly appreciated as this is the long-needed feature I have been waiting for. Thank you!!!!

[admin]

The message means that XY does not find any fitting 32-bit preview handlers in the system. I assume you are on 64-bit Windows?

[freecicero]

Thanks very much for the reply. I am running Windows XP 32 bit and all of my programs are 32 bit. The graphic previews seem to work fine, as do pdfs (albeit a little slowly). Also MP3 files start playing automatically as well. As far as I can tell no .xls file or .rtf file ever displays, but curiously I can occasionally find a .doc file that does display - 98 % of the .doc files don't, however. Is there a way for me to test that the handlers are present and / or otherwise troubleshoot this, such as other programs where the preview engine should work?

[admin]

This app will show you which handler is associated with which extension:

ShellExView v1.97 - Shell Extensions Manager
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

In this app, select "Preview Handlers" here:
Menu Options / Filter by Extension Type -> Preview Handlers

[freecicero]

Well bingo that certainly answered my question. Shellexview shows that I have Adobe PDF Preview handler but not much else - certainly not Microsoft office or any other office software. I am off to see what I can find about adding preview handler capability to Windows XP --- ok after reading it appears that I am out of luck for using this in XP.

If anyone happens to know of a workaround or if they are getting previews of office files in windows xp I would appreciate them letting me know!

for the meantime, it appears that I am stuck back with freecommander, which uses the .wlx plugin system which seems to work in xp :-(

[admin]

Normally Office automatically installs the handlers on its installation. Maybe you can update/repair your Office installation?

[freecicero]

I will try that, but you are in fact referring to Windows XP, or to later versions of Windows?

[admin]

IMO it should work in XP.

[freecicero]

Thank you for the suggestions - I will try to reinstall and if I succeed I will report back. Perhaps the problem is that I am using Office 2003

[freecicero]

This is strictly FWIW, and I apologize if this is off topic, not relevant, already answered, or offensive in any way. But it seems when I was cruising the forum I saw a suggestion or question about how xyplorer might go about integrating totalcommander-like file viewing functions could be integrated into xylplorer. (rather than the microsoft-based preview technology referenced in this thread).

Just in case this hasn't come to the attention of the forum, here is the technology that allows freecommander and totalcommander use to do this: http://totalcmd.net/plugring/oilister.html

Should anyone choose to pursue this, the technology from oracle is available free (at least to users) and allows viewing of these formats: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middl ... 133032.pdf

Here are the contents of the ulist readme file:

1. About
uLister is a powerful document viewer which can open more than 500 file formats.
2. Supported formats
Many popular word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, raster and vector image.
Full list: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middl ... 133032.pdf
3. License
This software are provided "as-is". No warranty provided.
This plugin is freeware, but libraries from Oracle® is not, you must accept license http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/licen ... 52015.html before using.
4. Credits
Outside In Viewer © 1991, 2011 Oracle.
The software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
5. Configuration
Use ulister.ini in plugin or %COMMANDER_INI% or %APPDATA% dir.
Parameters:
"noloadtypes" allow disable plugin for some formats(see formats.txt).
"onlyloadtypes" allow enable plugin only for some formats.
"nopreviewtypes" allow disable create preview for some formats.
"onlypreviewtypes" allow enable create preview only for some formats.
"keepinmemory" allow keep Outside In Viewer library in memory, it reduce document load time but increase memory consumption (Default enable).
"optionsdir" contain folder path for save settings(Environment variables now supported)
6. Installation
Download Viewer Technology: vw-8-3-7-win-x86-32.zip(or latest version if available) or vw-8-3-7-win-x86-64.zip(for x64 plugin version) from
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middl ... 97435.html , you need accept license and register.
And copy "redist" folder to plugin folder.

[admin]

Thanks for the info!

(Note that uLister has already been discussed here: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... it=ulister)

Are you actually using uLister in XY?

[freecicero]

Ah as usual I failed to search far enough. Feel free to delete my comment -- thanks for all your work!!!

[admin]

Oh, I think your comment is a good and useful How-To. No desire to delete it.