Previewing file in browser?

[lstuyck73]

Hi all,
I have a question concerning previewing a file in an ASP.NET
application. I would like to have a feature that a file on the server
(like powerpoint, word, pdf or excel file) could be previewed in the
browser. So in fact the same as what happens in the preview pane of
Outlook, but then in a web page.
Does anyone have any idea whether this can be achieved and how?
Thanks!
Kind regards,
Ludwig

 

[Peter Bucher [MVP]]

Hello Ludwig

I have a question concerning previewing a file in an ASP.NET
application. I would like to have a feature that a file on the server
(like powerpoint, word, pdf or excel file) could be previewed in the
browser. So in fact the same as what happens in the preview pane of
Outlook, but then in a web page.
Does anyone have any idea whether this can be achieved and how?

You can use an Html IFrame Element, that points to your file that should be
previewable,
that would be a simple and generic solution.
However, on the client side, every programm that handles the filetypes
(Office, ...) have to be installed.

The other aproach is to create thumbnails of your files at the serverside,
and send them as an Image (for example througth a HttpHandler) to the
client.
There are some components out there, where support this kind of
convertations, but most of them are for pdf files.
I have never seen a converter component that converts doc directly to an
image... but you can first convert from doc to pdf and then create an
thumbnail of the pdf...