I installed X6 alongside X5 on my Win 7 box, and it works like X5 did, but the box's promised shell preview ("Powerful office productivity", third bullet
● Check out files before you open them with Windows Explorer...", and on manual pg. 3,
"ENHANCED! WordPerfect file-type support")
isn't there. When I open an Explorer to My Documents' subfolder WPdocs that has WPDs and WPGs, both of them show with the standard icons, not with previews in the icons as DOCs do; nor does a right click on WP Office icons present a Preview option on the pop-up menu. I've reported this as an incident to Support, but they don't seem to understand.
This was the main reason I upgraded to X6, and its absence is very disappointing.
Removed X6 & reinstalled because a .DLL was missing. Lightning X6 now previews WPDs off its own entry in the R-click context menu, but there's no preview for WPGs or QPWs, nor any in shell icons. X6 needs to be integrated to use the standard O/S shell previewer, and the latter two file types need to be supported as well, all in icon preview.
This suite upgrade isn't worth the $150 to me for such a superficial, seemingly half-implemented change.
On my Win7/64bit system with WPX6 Standard Edition:
In Windows Explorer, when I click the "Show the preview pane" button to open the Preview pane, I can see the content of WPD document files and view WPG images.
??
- Barry -Toolbox for WordPerfect Tips, macros, and more at http://wptoolbox.com
Ah, that pane is something I knew was there, but never used! WPDs preview in it fine, but not WPGs. With the pane active, when I focus Explorer on a WPG, it gives an error message, "File type cannot be determined." For QPWs, I get the message "No preview available".
As I reported to Corel's support operator, the problem is that these file types are not being PREVIEWED in Explorer icons, as seemingly advertised on the box and in the manual's page 3.
Have I made myself clear, and is it reasonable? The shell preview of X6 seems half baked and lame, to me.
The full quote from page 3 of the WPX6 User Guide:
"ENHANCED! WordPerfect file-type support - You can now preview WordPerfect file-types from within Windows. You can also search the content of WordPerfect documents from within Windows."
I think this means what we both have observed: You can preview files using the aforementioned Windows Explorer button ... the same way you can from within WordPerfect's File>Open dialog (i.e., via the Preview button to access the viewer) ... and the same way you can with many other third-party file managers (i.e., with a Preview button to access the viewer).
I don't see anything about the program being able to show a preview directly on the file's icon image, which would require a more detailed description on that page. (Personally, I'm pleased that I can now also preview WPD files in Directory Opus, an extremely powerful file manager. Previously this required using a DLL from another program.)
If the WPX6 retail box (which I do not have, having downloaded the program) appears misleading to you, I suppose you could complain to Corel.
Thanks for your comment.
That WPO files don't icon-preview is disappointing, for that's how Acrobat and JPG/GIF/BMP files appear. TXTs don't, though.
I got the retail box because I like to have the media as backup, plus the manual. I do think that the preview-pane preview is good; plus the addition to allow Win search into WPDs; but that WPGs and QPWs don't preview in Explorer, but error message, is, pardon the italics, lame, because of the seeming promise that all WPO file types will preview.
I'm really not that surprised, for PRwin as a graphic editor is a stepchild, given CorelDraw's premiere status for the developer. However, the WPG vector graphics' scaleability makes them far more preferable to me than plain bitmaps, for many applications. PRwin's bitmap editor is lame, too. It hasn't gotten much improvement in years — most likely due to its competition for CorelDraw. They need to make it so that, if a user has CorelDraw, if the PRwin bitmap editor is invoked, it OLEs to CorelDraw; otherwise keeps using PRwin's. That might lead to PRwin users also buying CorelDraw.
Helge Skjeveland:. . the seeming promise that all WPO file types will preview.
"WordPerfect file-types" is not the same as "WPO file-types".
They need to make it so that, if a user has CorelDraw, if the PRwin bitmap editor is invoked, it OLEs to CorelDraw
Linking with PhotoPaint would be more sensible. But if a user has DRAW and PP, I do not see why they would be using Presentations to create images.
And the Windows explorer pane does show a preview of some .WPG files, though oddly not all.
And in some that it previews, text is omitted, though text is apparent in others.
Maybe a later service pack will broaden the coverage.
Charlie
Charles Cork:And the Windows explorer pane does show a preview of some .WPG files, though oddly not all.
There are certainly two; I beiieve three flavours of wpg.
You were right. More narrowing determined what’s going on with previewing WPGs: If saved to the default 7/X6 format, the preview pane says it can't. If the file has a 6.1 format, it previews fine. If saved to a 5.0 format WPG, it says that "No available viewer can display the file." All formats should be previewable, but especially the default one, agreed? As it works now is lame. Furthermore, QPWs do not preview at all, with a "No preview available." I reported this to Corel. Also, the right-click context menu for each WPO file type should present a previewer option that would show the file preview in a separate, freestanding pane, in case the user has the Explorer's preview pane turned off. The “flavor” WPG non-preview should be a simple fix to deal with the different file prefixes, I should think.
I realize that WPG graphics are a kind of stepchild. Corel certainly wants to have people use another application for graphic files, but the vector nature of WPGs make them much better for scalability reasons. A WPG with a bitmap in it is a hybrid data structure no doubt a swamp of problems, but I have few troubles exporting/importing from/to them via the Clipboard (e.g., PhotoShop, etc.). Smoother function and compatibility here would be nice.
IMHO, WPO X6 is not worth the extra money as compared with X5, unless one uses the added non-WPO (-WP -PRwin -QP) stuff.
Anyone know where the nice pre-Corel (WPcorp) line art is available? Most of the Corel cartoonish stuff is trash, IMHO.
Helge Skjeveland: You were right. More narrowing determined what’s going on with previewing WPGs: If saved to the default 7/X6 format, the preview pane says it can't. If the file has a 6.1 format, it previews fine. If saved to a 5.0 format WPG, it says that "No available viewer can display the file." All formats should be previewable, but especially the default one, agreed?
You were right. More narrowing determined what’s going on with previewing WPGs: If saved to the default 7/X6 format, the preview pane says it can't. If the file has a 6.1 format, it previews fine. If saved to a 5.0 format WPG, it says that "No available viewer can display the file." All formats should be previewable, but especially the default one, agreed?
The factory default file format in my PresX5 is 6.0.
The option is anyway available through Tools>Settings>Environment>Options
Yep, but looks like the factory default in X6 is 7-X6. Regardless, preview should support ALL save-as formats, don't you think? The older file formats'll probably not support newer objects, so the newest one should always be the previewable, not an intermediate one.
Helge Skjeveland:preview should support ALL save-as formats, don't you think?
I do.