The Bottom Line
The Word Browser Plug-in for Safari gives you the capability to open text-only previews of Microsoft Word documents (files with a .doc extension) in your browser window. While a Word document is open within Safari, the plug-in also provides the option to print or save the file as well as search for specific words or phrases within its content.
Pros
- Word Browser Plug-in lets you view text-only previews of .doc files even without MS Word installed.
- This plug-in lets you view Word documents from within the browser window itself.
- You can print Word documents from within Safari.
- You can save Word documents from within Safari.
Cons
- Word Browser Plug-in does not run on any OS older than 10.3.x.
- Word Browser Plug-in does not run on any Safari version older than 1.2.
- Images within Word documents are not rendered in the Safari browser window.
Description
- Word Browser Plug-in lets you view text-only previews of Microsoft Word documents in Safari's browser window.
- When viewing a Word document in Safari, a "Word" toolbar is displayed directly below your Bookmarks toolbar.
- The first option in the Word toolbar allows you to save a copy of the document to the location of your choice.
- The second option in the Word toolbar allows you to print the Word document which you are viewing.
- The third option in the Word toolbar allows you to copy highlighted text within the document to the Word clipboard.
- The fourth option in the Word toolbar allows you to search for words or phrases within the document.
- The fifth and final option in the Word toolbar allows you to increase or decrease the font size within the document.
- Word Browser Plug-in will only run on OS 10.3.x and above.
- Word Browser Plug-in will only run on Safari version 1.2 and above.
Guide Review - Word Browser Plug-in
For those of you who use Safari and do not have Microsoft Word, NeoOffice, or an equivalent installed on your computer this plug-in is practically a must have. Viewing .doc files in TextEdit is somewhat reliable but can cause you to lose some formatting aspects in transition. Although Word Browser Plug-in is not foolproof when it comes to this, it seems to handle text-only conversion a little better. Besides that, even if you do have an Office-ready word processor installed, it can be a lot more convenient to just view a document's text from within Safari's main window. I like being able to quickly print these documents from a button on Safari's toolbar section as well. In my opinion, this is a feature that should be integrated into the browser by the developers but since it is not this plug-in does a fine job of adding the functionality.
