[Peek] Support Office files

[Rudysin]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.70.0

Installation method

GitHub

Running as admin

None

Area(s) with issue?

Peek

Steps to reproduce

Can't preview Word doc

✔️ Expected Behavior

View Word file without opening app

❌ Actual Behavior

Popup window show file name only

Other Software

No response

[joeledvina]

Nor does it work with Excel or PowerPoint files.

[jaimecbernardo]

I think this is an enhancement request. Not a bug at this point.

[mheck-lm]

I'd love to see this being implemented!

[vivadavid]

Related to this thread, I'd like to suggest adding support for LibreOffice documents.

[didi8517]

Yes, that would be really great. The QuickLook software for windows has plugins to do this, perhaps that helps:

https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook.Plugin.OfficeViewer

https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook.Plugin.OfficeViewer-Native

Thanks!

[Jaifroid]

I use QuickLook in preference to Peek because of this. Without Office file support, this feature is kind of stymied for everyday use... Hope it can be added.

[dillydylann]

I made a prototype of what Office files (Word and Excel) would look like by embedding their preview handlers:

[randose]

Well done! Looking forward to testing this out in the 0.75 Release.

[jaimecbernardo]

The work associated with this issue has been released as part of the 0.75 sprint. Please update PowerToys to the latest. https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

[Jaifroid]

This is great news! I've downloaded and tested -- very smooth!

[vivadavid]

Hi,

Is there a way to peek a Microsoft Office file without having the programme installed? I currently use LibreOffice, but I still have old Microsoft Office files and I keep receiving new ones from other people. Having OnlyOffice installed doesn't work either.

[TheJoeFin]

@vivadavid does LibreOffice or OnlyOffice have document previewers which work in the File Explorer preview pane?

[vivadavid]

@vivadavid does LibreOffice or OnlyOffice have document previewers which work in the File Explorer preview pane?

Not that I know of. I keep thinking about getting in Bugzilla and open a thread about it. I think it's also difficult for file content indexers to index LibreOffice documents, so there must some kind of limitation or complexity related to the open document format.

[TheJoeFin]

At the end of the day PowerToys did not build an Office document previewer and no one has committed to building one any time soon.

[vivadavid]

I see... In any case, I keep my fingers crossed. When I have the chance, I'll ask in Bugzilla if there's something they can do about it. They must pretty busy now trying to revamp the LibreOffice app for Android.

[vivadavid]

@TheJoeFin , I've just remembered about this QuickLook MS Office plugin:

https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook.Plugin.OfficeViewer/releases

[EDIflyer]

The work associated with this issue has been released as part of the 0.75 sprint. Please update PowerToys to the latest. https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

I'm running 0.79 but it seems to work inconsistently - some preview fine, others just show the Word icon and file details as in the OP?

(Also for some reason double-clicking the icon at the top left maximises rather than closes the application as one would normally expect)

UPDATE just worked out what the pattern is! I tried lots of different files (wondering if it was something to do with how old/new/big the files were!) and realised the ones causing the problems had all been downloaded and if I right clicked on them and selected 'unblock' then apply it resolve the issue and Peek worked OK. Not sure if this is something that can be worked around or not, but if not perhaps you could display a message in the window that pops up to inform the user the file needs to be unblocked??

[randose]

I’m not part of the development team, so don’t take my word for it, but I would assume that the specific Word file has content such as special formatting, macros, etc that is unsupported by the previewer. There are currently limitations and bugs to the Office file previewing support on Peak, but it is certainly still the best option available in my opinion.

Daniel Rosenwald 310.972.1722 | @.***

Sent from mobile, please excuse brevity and typos

On Sat, Mar 30, 2024 at 10:55 AM EDIflyer @.***> wrote:

The work associated with this issue has been released as part of the 0.75 sprint. Please update PowerToys to the latest. https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

I'm running 0.79 but it seems to work inconsistently for .docx files - some preview fine, others just show the Word icon and file details as in the OP?

(Also for some reason double-clicking the icon at the top left maximises rather than closes the application as one would normally expect)

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/26210#issuecomment-2028382035, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABJYDTDMPBS635O4WPZF7PLY23U6ZAVCNFSM6AAAAAAYNI6UCOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDAMRYGM4DEMBTGU . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[EDIflyer]

Thanks for the reply @randose - nothing special about these files at all, and once I unblocked them they worked fine (I think you only got the email notification for my initial post - I then edited it with a follow-up where I'd sussed that it was them being downloaded files that was the issue and unblocking in properties did the trick!).

[randose]

Ah yes, only saw your original message. That makes sense! I’m glad you figured it out.

If that’s a nuisance to you, there’s a way to disable the automatic blocking of downloaded files somewhere deep in the Microsoft Office security options. Im sure you can figure it out with a quick web search. Best of luck!

Daniel Rosenwald 310.972.1722 | @.***

Sent from mobile, please excuse brevity and typos

On Tue, Apr 2, 2024 at 1:27 PM EDIflyer @.***> wrote:

Thanks for the reply @randose https://github.com/randose - nothing special about these files at all, and once I unblocked them they worked fine (I think you only got the email notification for my initial post - I then edited it with a follow-up where I'd sussed that it was them being downloaded files that was the issue and unblocking in properties did the trick!).

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/26210#issuecomment-2033031646, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABJYDTDB24YPR6V3FGNPWZLY3MIBJAVCNFSM6AAAAAAYNI6UCOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDAMZTGAZTCNRUGY . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[EDIflyer]

Thanks, Daniel - hopefully they can consider adding a warning to users too just to flag up that they may want to unblock the file to be able to use Peek on it :)