Formatted File Preview for Word (and maybe Excel?) files

[sklain]

Would this be possible? (Maybe by using Wordpad for Word files or in general other file viewers for other formats?)

[admin]

I don't think it's possible. AFAIK Wordpad cannot be automated that way, and showing other Office formats presupposes Office being installed. I don't want to go that way.

[sklain]

... and showing other Office formats presupposes Office being installed.

Not so. Check out the following Microsoft link -- they offer a whole slew of free viewers for files generated by Office products, without the need to first install Office:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assis ... 11033.aspx

So what if you enabled a File Preview option to make use of such external file viewers? Wouldn't that nicely enhance the usability of Tracker's File Preview?

[admin]

So what if you enabled a File Preview option to make use of such external file viewers? Wouldn't that nicely enhance the usability of Tracker's File Preview?

What tells you that I can incorporate these viewers into VB code?

And: the download size of "Word Viewer 2003" alone is more than 17 times larger than TV3's.

[sklain]

I'm just a user, not a programmer, and I don't even know what "VB code" is. From my naive user viewpoint, I was only wondering (brainstorming?) as to whether an outside reader for Office files could be "called up" by TV3 for formatted viewing -- similar, for example (again, from my non-programmer viewpoint), to TV3's ability to use Adobe Reader to view Acrobat files.

[admin]

... TV3's ability to use Adobe Reader to view Acrobat files.

Yes, you are being logical. And actually you pointed me to a good thought: TV3 reads Acrobat files through the "web preview", ie through IE. Now I experimentally dragged a WORD file onto a browser window and voila it could display it! I will see if that will work inside TV3, too...

EDIT: ... yep, works great! Next BETA will preview DOC, DOT, RTF, PPT, XLS, CSV.

[sklain]

That will be really great -- many thanks. I look forward to the next beta and the next level of TV3's quest for absolute perfection.

[Leopoldus]

Next BETA will preview DOC, DOT, RTF, PPT, XLS, CSV.

Greate indeed! But could you please make it configurable (enable/disable)? The same implements to PDF files previewing.

[admin]

Next BETA will preview DOC, DOT, RTF, PPT, XLS, CSV.

Greate indeed! But could you please make it configurable (enable/disable)? The same implements to PDF files previewing.

You can already: Configuration/Previewed Formats -> uncheck what you don't want

[sklain]

Excellent -- this is a great enhancement of Tracker for me. The file preview works almost perfectly -- an initial hitch does occur with Excel files: an initial error message appears but when I click OK and move to another Excel file everything looks fine, so no big deal.

Many, many thanks for responding to these suggestions from the user forum so quickly.

[admin]

Yep, I'm having the hitch, too, sometimes. It's irregular and hence I think it's a problem somewhere in the depths of Office objects. If you see a pattern, let me know.

EDIT: did you note that you can even edit Office files now within the TV3 preview!? You don't have a "save" toolbar icon but you can always Ctrl+S when the preview has the focus. Real cool enhancement indeed

[sklain]

did you note that you can even edit Office files now within the TV3 preview!? You don't have a "save" toolbar icon but you can always Ctrl+S when the preview has the focus. Real cool enhancement indeed

This is incredible -- I played around in one of my Word files and found that Tracker now provides access to the entire range of Word's editing and formatting commands: macros, spell-checking, even Word's revision mode!

Since the Word menu isn't available within Tracker, initially only icon-based commands are accessible. But that shortcoming could easily be gotten around by writing (in my case, as a non-programmer, "recording") a couple of macros that point to menu commands.

Truly amazing.

[admin]

Truly amazing.

Indeed! But pad your own back, too: you triggered this little feature!

[admin]

...only icon-based commands are accessible.

That's interesting, because I don't see any icons/toolbar here. Is there any trick to show them?

[sklain]

Not sure why I see Word toolbars (visible on the line under the address information in the File Preview pane) and you don't. Two possible ways you might be able to attain access to them: (1) Open the "normal.dot" basic template to make sure it has at least one toolbar visible, then save it; (2) open Word and then close it, making sure that at least one toolbar is visible. As soon as one toolbar is visible, right-mouse-clicking gives you access to all the rest. I have access to toolbars when previewing Word files but not with PowerPoint and Excel files -- two programs that I seldom use.

Hope this helps you. BTW, isn't this ability of editing Office files within Tracker, as exciting as it may be at first glance, more of academic interest than of great practical interest? I envision it as being useful for minor file revisions or text copying. For more substantial projects one would no doubt want to open the file directly in Word.

P.S. Word's keyboard shortcuts only work properly if the cursor is first position within the text with a left-click. Only then, for example, does F12 work as "Save As" in order to save the file under another name; otherwise, F12 makes Tracker's Info Panel disappear.