Quick-viewer for Microsoft Word documents

[alex]

I have a directory with several thousand Word documents. Many have cryptic names -- like "pp27.doc" -- and many of them are quite old (some more than 10 years old).

I need to sort them out and categorize them. It's very time-consumring to open-up each document in Word. Is there a tool out there that can let me quickly view the contents of the file?

I'm thinking either a quick-viewer that lets me right-click on the file to view it, or some sort of utility that is similar to Windows Explorer, but has a preview pane. I've searched this site but haven't found anything like that.

Thanks in advance.

[kendall.a]

Many of the desktop search tools have preview panes in them. (http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ch-utility.htm) I know that Copernic and Google Desktop do as do several of the others.

This may not be your best option, but I personally do not know of another viewer type program.

[Anupam]

The file explorer Xplorer2 lite version has a preview pane. You may try it. Although, I don't know if it will be satisfactory, coz I was not able to preview all of the doc files that I had in the folder. You may give it a try and see if it works for you.

You might have to make a minor change in its options though:
Tools --> Options --> Under Window tab ---> Quick viewer ---> Check the box "No hex preview".

Another file explorer UltraExplorer also has a preview pane, where you can preview the doc files. You will have to activate the Viewer pane by F3. One more setting to be made:
File Menu ---> View ---> Viewer ---> Configure ---> Under File Extensions ----> In RTF box, add doc with a comma in addition to rtf which is already there.

Then you will be able to preview doc files too.

Do try and tell if any of the above work for you .

[alex]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Another file explorer UltraExplorer also has a preview pane, where you can preview the doc files. You will have to activate the Viewer pane by F3. One more setting to be made:
File Menu ---> View ---> Viewer ---> Configure ---> Under File Extensions ----> In RTF box, add doc with a comma in addition to rtf which is already there.

Then you will be able to preview doc files too.

Do try and tell if any of the above work for you .

Hi Anupam, I did try UltraExplorer. It works, sort-of, but not very well. It doesn't show some of the Word documents (the older ones), and it's rather slow in displaying the ones it does display. Also, it tends to lock-up.

I'll try the other program you recommended.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Anupam]

Yeah... these softwares are able to show RTF files quite well, but not so with doc files. Might work for you for some files, but not for all. Will have to look for other softwares, lets see if something else is available.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by alex

... It's very time-consumring to open-up each document in Word. Is there a tool out there that can let me quickly view the contents of the file? ...

Alternatively, you can preview doc files in Word's open box. Don't need another tool or previewer.

See tips here.

[Anupam]

Great tip Jojoyee... I think thats the best option, and solution

[alex]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

Alternatively, you can preview doc files in Word's open box. Don't need another tool or previewer.

See tips here.

Thanks for the clever tip, Jojoyee. That'll probably work for me, though it's a bit awkward to move files to different subdirectories, delete them, and/or rename them, all from within Word's open box. Still, this method will probably work for my purposes.

Thanks again for all the help from everyone.

[mea1]

TextMaker is VERY fast. Version 8 is current. http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofwtm_en.htm
Version 6 is available for free. http://www.softmakeroffice.com/

Alternatively, download TextMaker Viewer (4 MB) [free].
TextMaker Viewer lets you open, view and print documents from Microsoft Word, TextMaker, OpenOffice.org, OpenDocument as well as other common office file formats.