Preview Office documents

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files open in the side panel as a PDF for reading. The conversion happens on the computer running DataMind Oda, and your original file stays as it is. This page covers that conversion: the formats it accepts, how it queues, and its limits. For the preview pane itself, see Preview files in Oda; for reading the converted document, see Preview PDFs and Office files.

Open an Office file in the preview

Find the file's card in the chat. Files Oda made or handed over appear as cards at the end of its answer (Delivered files).
Choose Preview in sidebar.
Oda converts the file, and the converted document opens as a read-only tab in the side panel.

Files built from your company's data arrive the same way (Company data, documents and reports).

What the conversion accepts

The conversion accepts the six Office formats: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt and .pptx.

The extension is matched regardless of case, so a file named Report.DOCX converts too.
A path that does not end in one of the six extensions is refused before the file is read: The path must end in doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, or pptx.
The preview checks your access to the file as well, so a file your account cannot read in DataMind Oda cannot be previewed.

How a conversion works

The preview checks the file's extension and your access to it.
The request joins the conversion queue and reserves room for the file while it is read.
The converter turns the file into a PDF in a private temporary folder.
The PDF opens in the side panel, and the finished copy is kept for reuse while it stays available.

The conversion never changes the source file.
The same content converts once: opening the same document again, or opening two copies of the same content, reuses the finished PDF instead of converting again.

Limits and queueing

Two conversions run at a time by default. Further requests wait their turn, and when the queue can take no more the preview stops with the busy reason; try again shortly.
A conversion has 60 seconds to finish by default. Waiting for its turn in the queue does not count towards that limit.
By default, a source file can be up to 50 MiB and the converted PDF up to 100 MiB. A source over the limit is refused, and a converted PDF over the limit is not shown or kept.
Oda keeps about 8 converted PDFs and 128 MiB in total, plus the source files those copies belong to. The oldest are dropped first, and failures and oversized results are never kept.
When a file's size is not known yet, it counts as the largest allowed source until it is measured.

When a conversion cannot finish

When a preview cannot finish, the report below names what happened, and your file is never changed.

Office conversion failed. The conversion did not complete, and the message carries a reason:

Reason	What it means
`busy`	Too many conversions are running or waiting. Try again shortly.
`input-too-large`	The source file is over the size limit. Reduce the file and open it again.
`output-too-large`	The converted PDF would be over the size limit, so it is not shown or kept. Reduce the file and open it again.
`invalid-document`	The file cannot be read as an Office document. Check it in its usual app.
`unsupported-format`	The file is not one of the six Office formats.
`invalid-output`	The conversion produced no usable PDF. Try again, or check the file in its usual app.
`timeout`	The conversion ran longer than its time limit. Try again.
`unavailable`	The document engine could not run on this computer. See the engine messages below.
`source-changed`	The file changed while the preview was preparing it. Open a fresh preview.
`failed`	The conversion stopped for another reason. Try again; if it repeats, check the file in its usual app.

The document preview was cancelled. The preview was stopped before the conversion finished. Open it again when you want it.
The source changed. The file was no longer the version Oda checked when the conversion read it, so nothing was converted. Open a fresh preview for the version that is there now.
The Office engine is not installed. The engine that performs conversions is missing on this computer.
The Office engine is not available: <detail> The engine could not start; the detail after the colon says why.

Note

Oda converts Office files with its own document engine. It does not use an office suite already installed on your computer. Some computers have the engine included with the app, and on others it is prepared on first use.

What a preview leaves behind

The conversion works in a private temporary folder and removes it when it finishes, so no working files stay behind.
The converted PDF is kept only as one of the preview's ready copies; it is never saved as a document in your workspace.
Nothing in your workspace changes, so a preview adds nothing to the chat and nothing appears in Changed files and comparisons.

Questions, answered

Which Office files can I preview?

The six Office formats: Word .doc and .docx, Excel .xls and .xlsx, and PowerPoint .ppt and .pptx. The extension is matched regardless of case. Anything else is refused before it is read, and the message names the accepted extensions.

How many documents can convert at once?

Two conversions run at a time by default. Further requests wait their turn, and when the queue can take no more the preview stops with the busy reason. Try again shortly.

How long does a conversion get, and does queue waiting count?

A conversion has 60 seconds to finish by default. Waiting for its turn does not count towards that limit, so a busy queue can delay a preview without failing it.

What happens when a document is too large?

By default, up to 50 MiB for the source file and up to 100 MiB for the converted PDF. A source over the limit is refused without conversion, and a converted PDF that would go over the limit is not shown or kept.

Why does the same document sometimes convert again?

Kept copies are limited to about 8 PDFs and 128 MiB, plus the sources they belong to. When the room runs out, the oldest copies are dropped, so a later preview of that document converts it again. Failures and oversized results are never kept, so those always start over.

Does Oda use the Office apps installed on this computer?

No. Oda converts Office files with its own document engine; it does not use an office suite already installed on your computer. Some computers have the engine included with the app, and on others it is prepared on first use.

What happens to the temporary files a conversion uses?

The conversion works in a private temporary folder and removes it when it finishes. Nothing from it is saved in your workspace, and the converted PDF is kept only as a ready copy for the preview.

What do the reasons after `Office conversion failed.` mean?

The reason names what stopped the conversion: busy, input-too-large, output-too-large, invalid-document, unsupported-format, invalid-output, timeout, unavailable, source-changed or failed. The table above explains each one.

The preview said the file changed. What do I do now?

Open a fresh preview. The source changed. means the file was no longer the version Oda checked when the conversion read it, so nothing was converted. The new preview converts the version that is there now.

What does `The document preview was cancelled.` mean?

The preview was stopped before the conversion finished, so nothing was converted or kept. Open the preview again when you want it.