ActiveX + Preview + Office + Web

[leo]

ActiveX Plugin

The ActiveX plugin comes with Directory Opus but, between Opus releases, you can sometimes download a newer version from the plugin's web page.

The ActiveX plugin allows Directory Opus to view various document types within the Opus viewer pane.

The plugin will hook other programs and viewers into Opus, depending on which compatible software you have installed.

It is designed to work with the following:

• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
• The standalone MS Office Viewers (free)
• Open Office (instructions)
• Internet Explorer (for HTML, MHT, XML, etc.)
• Adobe Reader (PDF)
• Fox-It Reader (PDF)
• Shockwave Flash (SWF)
• Vista and Office 2007 Preview Handlers (E-mails, Contacts, Fonts, etc.)
• Microsoft XPS documents
• Windows Media Player (but the Opus Movie plugin is better for movie playback)
• Zip file contents
• AutoCAD (DWG, DWF, etc.) (instructions)
• DjVu (instructions)
• And more...

The plugin includes the ability for 64-bit versions of Opus to use both 32-bit and 64-bit ActiveX viewers. For example, this enables 64-bit users to view PDF and Flash files within the Opus viewer pane, even though Adobe have not produced 64-bit versions of their components.

How to view Open Office documents:

See the guide here.

How to view AutoCAD .DWG files:

See the guide here.

How to view .DjVu files:

See the guide here.


Screenshots:

The new configuration dialog allows you to specify which types of ActiveX controls should be used to view different files. You can also disable certain Preview Handlers entirely if you find they get in the way of other viewers which you prefer. (Some are disabled by default, for example Vista's plain-text handler.)


Word document:


Excel document:


MHT web page archive:


QuickTime .mov:


Font:


E-Mail:


Shockwave Flash:


XML:


MP3:


More Info:

For History, the Known Issues list the To-Do list and Translation Tips, please see the plugin's web page:

http://www.pretentiousname.com/activex/index.html

[AlbatorV]

Why mine is not the same as your preview. I don't see "help" tab nor "preview handler"?

Help tab has been deleted since some versions of the plugin...
And you don't see "Preview handler" because you are using WinXP. Preview handler is only for Vista...

[AMIRZ]

Hello, you can use also the preview handler in Windows Xp (it works for both Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 preview pane and also Directory Opus 9.1.0.4 or above viewer pane/preview plug in).

See here for details:

http://resource.dopus.com/viewtopic.php?t=8310

[leo]

(Note: This conversation has been merged into a single post to tidy things up. Each quote & reply were originally separate posts.)

The ActiveX plugin seems to work unusually SLOWLY for me.

For example, when I try to preview a .docx file in the DirOpus Viewer pane, it takes JUST AS LONG to show up as it would if I just opened ALL of Microsoft Word.

Aren't viewer plugins supposed to enable one to VIEW FILES FASTER than by opening the actual programs with which they are associated?

I am running Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 on 1.5G RAM, have up-to-date Windows updates and no viruses/malware, and have fully functional up-to-date installed Microsoft Office 2007 and MSIE7.

Still, the same files load A LOT faster with the ActiveX plugin in Total Commander than they do in DirOpus. I DO realize that TC may be faster than Opus for some operations, but the difference is usually slight, NOT enormous. I am NOT trying to argue over which file manager is better, I only mentioned TC to illustrate why I think that there must be some other issue that I am overlooking that is causing my Directory Opus ActiveX Viewer plugin to be so slow.

I would be more than happy to provide any further information that may be needed to solve this problem. I love Directory Opus, but the viewer serves no purpose for me if it takes just as long to load as opening an entire application. What am I doing wrong or what could be causing the problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

What the ActiveX plugin loads for a .docx file depends on what's installed on your system.

If you have Office 2007 installed then the plugin should use the Word Preview Handler, which should load very fast. This is the same thing that both Outlook 2007 and Explorer in Vista use for their preview panels.

If you have an earlier version of Office then the plugin will probably load Word itself, which is why it takes as long as loading Word itself (because it is ).

Note that the plugin never explicitly asks for Word or any other program. It looks up which preview handlers (first, if any) and ActiveX controls (second) are associated with the file type in your computer's registry. This is usually (but not always) the same thing that Internet Explorer does if you drop a file on it.

I don't know what TC's plugin does to show Word files.

If you don't have Office 2007 and want faster previews then you might want to look at the MultiView plugin for Opus. That will hook into an alternative viewer for Word, if you have the required third-party components installed. (See the thread on the MultiView plugin for more details.)

I already have Office 2007 installed.

Could it be an issue with the Word Preview Handler? I tried loading previews of several .docx files in Explorer in Vista, and there the preview pane was just BLANK and did not show anything, even though the file association is correct and there are no problems if I just open the actual files in Word 2007.

Yes, sounds like the Word preview handler isn't working for some reason. Not sure why that would be, unless you've installed some other preview handlers that have taken over the extension and don't actually work. Making it work again in Explorer would be the first thing I'd do, before worrying about it not working in Opus. (Fix one and you should fix the other.)

It's possible that the preview handlers are an optional part of Office 2007. I can't remember as it's a while since I installed it.

If you open the ActiveX plugin's configuration (via Preferences - Plugins - Viewers), do you see the Word preview handler listed in the top section?

This keeps getting more strange...

I still had the Explorer window (with preview pane) open when I switched to the Firefox window, and when I switched back, the .docx file preview DID appear. I know it was not a loading time issue, because I repeated the same thing several times and also tried just waiting for it to load without changing windows. I found that the preview always appears instantly as soon as I either a) resize the Explorer window or b) change focus to any other window and then switched back to Explorer window... but otherwise it will not appear no matter how long I wait.

This seems very bizarre to me. Does this mean that the Word preview handler is installed and working, or not?

Yes, the Word preview handler IS listed in the ActiveX plugin's configuration.

Nevermind, I figured it out.

For some reason I had a back up of an older version of dopus.exe (renamed to dopus.exe.bak) in the Directory Opus folder, but after I deleted that, the preview handler works correctly, as far as I can tell so far. I'm not sure why it made a difference, since I DID have the up-to-date dopus.exe in that folder TOO, but I'm just glad it is fixed now.

Thank you for your help though - I would not have found it if you did not mention that the dopus.exe file itself could be relevant to the other problem I was having with <missing string> showing up in plugin configuration dialogs (discussed in this thread...).

I still do not know what the problem is with Explorer preview showing up only after the window is either resized or loses focus, but all I care about is that preview works correctly in Directory Opus.

[leo]

Sorry to bother you again, but I have another question about the ActiveX plugin.

Is there a way to preview PDF files using ActiveX plugin WITHOUT having Adobe Reader (or Acrobat) installed, but rather using files from some other PDF viewer instead (such as FoxIt PDF Reader, for example)?

If so, how would I set up something like this?

Also, [assuming that it is, in fact, possible use FoxIt or some other PDF viewer for this DO viewer plugin]... Is there a way to preview PDF files using the ActiveX plugin, such that the plugin would grab the needed files from a portable USB version of FoxIt (or any other PDF viewer that is not Adobe Reader)?

I apologize if this has already been mentioned elsewhere on the forums - I did not find anything when I tried to search for answers in existing threads/posts.

If FoxIT is installed and registered as the PDF ActiveX control then the ActiveX plugin will use it. That usually means you have to have installed FoxIT on the machine last.

(i.e. If you install FoxIT and then Acrobat Reader on the same machine, Acrobat Reader will be registered as the PDF ActiveX control since it was installed last. You would then have to re-install FoxIT so that it re-registers itself over the top of Acrobat Reader.)

I don't know of any way to make it work with a portable version of FoxIT. Which ActiveX control is used for a file type is defined in the registry so the control has to be installed for it to work. It's the same with Internet Explorer.

[leo]

1) open pane and select excel file to display
2) now, double click on this file to open it in Excel
3) after 1 second, Opus jump on top, pane is empty and Excel in background.

Yeah, Excel won't let you open the same file twice.

[leo]

(Note: This conversation has been merged into a single post to tidy things up. Each quote & reply were originally separate posts.)

I have a Problem with Word-Documents. If the Preview Pane is activated and i open the Word-Document, there is only a copy of the document opened, which cannot be saved. If i uncheck the "Open temporarily Copy" in the Plugin-Manager it is the same.

I think, if i open a Word-Document in this way, the preview of this document should automatically be disabled.

I'm using Windows XP and Word 2000 and the newest versions of directory opus and this plugin.

The viewer pane is a viewer - you're not meant to be able to edit through it. If you want to edit the document you should use Word.

Sorry, this was a misunderstanding. I don't try to edit the document in the viewer. What i mean is, that i see the document in the viewer. When i open this document with a double-click (or with "open"), word is opened and i see the document in word. But this document in word is a temporary copy of the original and not the original itself. And then it is not possible to save this document in word for example with another name.

It only works, when the preview pane in directory opus is disabled before opening the document in word.

If that's happening it's a bug in Word since Opus cannot affect what Word does when files are double-clicked.

Good luck getting Microsoft to even acknowledge the problem let alone fix it.

However, if you have Word 2007 you can use the preview handlers with Opus (it'll use them automatically if they are available) to avoid the problem. If you can't or don't want to upgrade to 2007 then you can use Opus's MultiView plugin instead of the ActiveX plugin, but you need to get some 3rd party viewer components to make that work. If you find the MultiView plugin's thread in this forum you'll find a link to a thread with some ways to get those DLLs for free that other forum members have suggested.

Now with the MultiView it works perfect. Thanks a lot.

[leo]

Here's a guide on how to use Open Office with the ActiveX plugin:

http://www.pretentiousname.com/activex/ ... openoffice

[leo]

• Ctrl-F in Internet Explorer on 64-bit systems:
  
  With IE8 (at least on my Windows 7 x64 system), the problem with error messages when using Ctrl-F to find things via 32-bit IE are gone.
  
  So if that problem bothered you in the past and caused you to switch to the 64-bit version of IE you can switch back to the 32-bit version now, provided you've upgraded to IE8.
  
  Ctrl-F in IE8 also gives you find-as-you-type when viewing web pages, which I think a few people had asked for.
  
• Adobe PDF previews on 64-bit systems:
  
  The "Adobe PDF for Vista" preview handler should work now, too, even on 64-bit systems where it doesn't work in Explorer.
  
  That should give Adobe-preferring Windows 7 x64 users a working PDF viewer again. (FoxIt worked already for those who prefer that.)

[leo]

Here's a guide on how to view AutoCAD files via the ActiveX plugin:

http://www.pretentiousname.com/activex/ ... ml#autocad

[leo]

I'm having a spot of trouble with OpenOffice documents. They display alright, but none of the controls work (scrollbars, buttons).

At the top it says "document.odt (SOActiveX Class)", which seems to be correct. Any idea's on how to get the controls working?

Grab Opus 9.5 or above and the OpenOffice problem should go away.

[Konrad Klar]

(Note: This conversation has been merged into a single post to tidy things up. Each quote & reply were originally separate posts.)

Here's a guide on how to view AutoCAD files via the ActiveX plugin:
http://www.pretentiousname.com/activex/ ... ml#autocad

Please look at it:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=12423405&siteID=123112

It is free and comes with ActiveX controls for handling some AutoDesk's formats.

Does that work with the ActiveX plugin already and you're sharing it with others, or are you asking me to take a look at it because it doesn't work?

Former.
It does work for me. Successfully tested with .dwf files (.dwf extention added in Generic ActiveX 32-bit section of ActiveX Plugin Configuration).
And it works even with .dwf files that Free DWG Viewer (Powered by Brava!) 6.3.0.16 cannot handle.
For example with these:
http://www.graitec.com/EN/samples_AS.asp

Excellent, thanks! I've added a note about it to the ActiveX plugin's webpage.

[leo]

Here's a guide on how to view DjVu files via the ActiveX plugin:

http://www.pretentiousname.com/activex/index.html#djvu

Thanks to Nosh and Flutable!