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pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 28 Nov 2016 22:10
by texastechy
I assume this is possible. But how to get XY to preview a pdf file?
My default pdf viewer is Nitro pdf in windows 10. but all I see in XY preview pane is some text and garbled characters.
Any ideas? I've read through the form and can't find an answere.

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 28 Nov 2016 22:46
by highend
Which version of XY?
Which version of NitroPDF? +bitness if necessary
Bitness of Windows 10?

Show the output of ShellExView (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html)
Depending on your OS's bitness you need the correct version (x86 / x64)
If using the x64 version, Menu - Options - [x] Show 32-bit Shell Extensions
Regardless of bitnees, Menu - Options - [x] Hide all Microsoft Extensions
Only show the preview handlers as a screenshot...

Did you modify any of the Menu - Tools - Configuration... - Preview - Previewed Formats at all?

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 29 Nov 2016 00:34
by texastechy
latest version of XY.
Nitro 8.5
64 bit windows 10
Initially XY showed no pdf previews. So I added the pdf extension manually.
Using shellexview, I have both the adobe and Nitro preview handlers enabled (also tried disabling both to see what happened. no change).

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 29 Nov 2016 00:57
by highend
There are already a lot of threads that are dealing with adobe and not being able to preview pdfs
https://www.google.com.tr/search?q=site ... +adobe+pdf

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 29 Nov 2016 22:04
by texastechy
Thank you for your reply. I read quite a bit on many forum pages and it seems others have similar problems with no fixes that I could see.

Unfortunately after a few hours I've given up with trying to fix this and am moving on to another file explorer.

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 29 Nov 2016 22:33
by admin
texastechy wrote:Initially XY showed no pdf previews. So I added the pdf extension manually.
Where did you add it? It should be in "Office files" only, otherwise you will see garbled text.

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 10 Dec 2016 15:26
by roemer_m
I had the same error and fixed it as follows just by changing config of XYplorer:

open XYplorer configuration->Preview->Previewed Formats
if *.pdf file is checked uncheck it
save changes in configuration

after that pdf-preview with configured standard shell handler should be used instead of plain text handler

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 11 Dec 2016 10:25
by admin
Yes, that's why I asked him "Where did you add it?". If it is under "Text Files" and checked you will get garbled text.

Welcome to the club, BTW!

Re: pdf preview only shows garbled text

Posted: 21 Dec 2016 15:38
by ThomasHelzle
I had an similar issue with .exr files and somehow it did not occur to me that the list above is related to the list below in the configuration, so I got a preview as text. ;-)

Can this be made clearer visually?
I now see that the text above the list indicates what category the below extensions belong to, but somehow it's unusual on Windows to have two such list controls be related to each other, so it's not immediately obvious I have to select the category in the upper list. I actually thought about how to tell XY what kind of file it is, but didn't grok the logic.
Maybe instead of just "Category" have something like "Select the file category in this list, then add the extension below" - there is Space enough ;-)

Cheers,

Tom