View Word files with incorrect extension

I use an industry program that creates word documents from word "templates".
The templates are in docx format.
The created documents are in docx format but named as doc.
Now the Dopus viewer can display docx & doc but when it encounters a docx named as doc it just displays the word logo.

Is there a way to view such documents within the Dopus viewer?

PS: I note that Windows file explorer will display them.

Do the files that aren't working work OK when renamed to the correct file extensions, or do those files still not work?

We use the same Word viewer that File Explorer uses, and it's also the same viewer for both .doc and .docx files, so if it's confused by the extension in Opus but not File Explorer then I'm not sure what is happening there.

Any differences in how the two formats are handled are inside the viewer code, which (assuming the usual Word preview handler is in use) is part of Microsoft Word rather than something we wrote ourselves. We only wrote the code to host the Word viewer inside our viewer pane.

One thing to check: Under Preferences / Viewer / Plugins, configure the ActiveX + Preview + Office + Web plugin and make sure the appropriate extensions are all listed against the Microsoft Word preview handler in the top section of the list:

Also make sure the preview handler is actually turned on there.

Turning off the "open temporary copies" option for it (over on the right after selecting it) may also help, since that's something File Explorer doesn't do. It should be off by default, however.

Also make sure the Microsoft Office (legacy) viewer farther down the list is turned off as it isn't recommended these days; the modern preview handler is always a better choice, as well as being what File Explorer uses.

1 Like

Thanks for quick reply.

When I rename the doc to docx the Dopus viewer displays it.
Preferences / Viewer / Plugins all check out ok.
"open temporary copies" option is off.
Microsoft Office (legacy) viewer is turned off.

I can send you sample doc & docx files if that would help.

I've worked out what's happening, and we'll make this work in the next beta update.

We have some additional checks for .doc files to make sure they're actually Word documents, since the extension is also used for a lot of plain-text files on other operating systems, where loading them into the Word viewer isn't appropriate. That check only looked for the .doc header, since it's the only one that should appear at the start of a .doc Word document. We'll make it accept the .docx header as well.

1 Like

Thanks Leo

The change is now available in 12.28.2 beta, and will also be part of 12.29 when that gets released.