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Docs

Supported formats and viewers

The plugin previews uploaded files and shared cloud documents. How each one renders depends on the format.

Uploaded file formats

Section titled “Uploaded file formats”

These extensions are accepted in the meta box and validated on the front end: pdf, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, txt.

  • PDF renders locally through a bundled pdf.js viewer. No request goes to any third party, so PDF previews work on local, staging, password protected, and firewalled sites. The viewer has Previous and Next page controls.
  • Word (doc, docx), Excel (xls, xlsx), and PowerPoint (ppt, pptx) render through the Google Docs Viewer. That viewer has to fetch the file, so the file URL must be publicly reachable.
  • Text (txt) renders through the Google Docs Viewer on a live site. On a site detected as local or unreachable, a text file falls back to a local preview page with a download option.
Section titled “Cloud and shared document links”

Paste a sharing URL instead of uploading a file. These services are detected and embedded automatically:

  • Google Docs
  • Google Sheets
  • Google Slides
  • OneDrive, including SharePoint and OneDrive for Business share links
  • Dropbox, including file and folder share links (converted for embedding)

Cloud links must remain publicly viewable for the preview to load.

How previews open

Section titled “How previews open”

Every preview opens in a modal popup on the product page, built on WordPress Thickbox at 900 by 700 pixels. The shopper stays on the product page and closes the preview by clicking outside it or pressing Escape.

Multiple documents

Section titled “Multiple documents”

A product can carry any number of documents. Each one is stored with its own name and URL and renders as its own button under a “Preview Document” or “Preview Documents” heading.