[manfreds]

Word Browser Plugin 1.0 has been released and is available here:

http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginword/

The plugin displays a text only preview of Word (.doc) documents within the web browser.

[gorickey]

Interesting...

Thx.

[clam2000]

Now I just need an excel plugin.

[incoherant ranting]
Just because internet explorer can show excel inline teachers decide to use it for their assignment sheets.
[/incoherant ranting]

--will

[Peter]

whoa sweet!

[-Q-]

Handy stuff. Good job.

[darrick]

respectfully, i don't see the handiness now that TextEdit can do so much with word docs.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by darrick:
respectfully, i don't see the handiness now that TextEdit can do so much with word docs.

This plugin is using the same under-the-hood technology that allows TextEdit to read those doc files. It basically has the same relationship to TextEdit that the PDF Browser Plugin has with Preview.

[darrick]

well, and i do not mean to knock the developer whose pdf plugin is of GREAT use...

the pdf plugin lets me see pdf files i click on at websites without downloading them and using preview. the word doc plugin ain't gonna see doc files at websites. so it's to do the same desktop thing as TextEdit. so... i just don't see it.

i'm not trying to make the new word plugin look bad, i'm just trying to find out what i'm missing.

[jasong]

Actually a number of people put Word documents on their web sites. While not as critical as the PDF Plug-in (or even a PowerPoint plug-in - any chance making a Keynote plug-in that is PowerPoint compatible?), this is certainly useful for dealing with sites that don't have a person who knows what they are doing updating them.

For the most part you aren't missing much, but this is a great niche product.

-- Jason

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by darrick:
the word doc plugin ain't gonna see doc files at websites. so it's to do the same desktop thing as TextEdit. so... i just don't see it.

I would assume that it would display the doc files in a browser window, just like the PDF plugin.

Basically, Preview is not much more than a wrapper for OS X's built-in PDF capabilities, with a few nice extra features thrown in. Similarly, TextEdit is basically a wrapper for OS X's built-in text editing capabilities, which include the ability to read RTF and doc files, with a few nice extra features built-in. What the PDF and Word browser plugins both do is basically to wrap the PDF and Doc capabilities of OS X in a browser plug-in. They really are of the same breed of animal.

[manfreds]

Originally posted by darrick:
respectfully, i don't see the handiness now that TextEdit can do so much with word docs.

The handiness only becomes apparent if you encounter a lot of Word documents on the net. Most people don't, and I have hardly ever seen one myself, but there are people who see them a lot. They have asked for a Word plugin, and with Panther it was now easy to make one.

[schwa]

If you manage an intranet, like I do, you manage quite a lot of online Word docs.

Thanks for this!

[darrick]

cool, cheers.

(again. never meant to knock the developer. he's truly a great asset to the mac community.)

[Krypton]

v2 released

Now matches great functionality of the PDF browser plug-in.