Opening M.D.I. files

neil_jo · Blue Pill Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 4

Hi does anyone know if neooffice will open microsoft digital image files.
I get an email from work mon. to fri. that are m.d.i. formatted and can only
open them with m.s. office /03 or better. Am on an intel imac useing office on parallels but would like an easier solution Thanks

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:36 pm Post subject:

Note that I believe Microsoft Document Imaging should be able to save in TIFF format...see if you can get your office to change. Neo & OOo can't do this format, and I don't believe Graphic Converter (the swiss army knife of Mac image converters) does it either.

MDI is based on TIFF according to this Microsoft marketing blurb. If they didn't extend the format in horrid ways (which somehow I doubt...) you might want to try just slapping a ".tif" extension on it and see if Preview/Neo/Graphic Converter can grok the file format.

ed

neil_jo · Blue Pill Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 4

Thankyou for the quick response, but am not sure how to convert the mdi to a tiff useing osx. any ideas?

Samwise · Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:13 pm Post subject:

Since M.D.I seem to be based on TIFF, Ed suggested replacing the existing extension with .tif, and see if Preview can open them. If MS's format is not too different from what it's based on, it may work ...

Edit : However, after having read a bit about this format, it looks like Microsoft is using proprietary image compression, so Preview may also fail to open the renamed files.

Why not ask the person who sends you the attachments to save them in TIFF format ? According to this article, Office Document Imaging can do it. Both Preview can open TIFF images, and they can be inserted in a NeoOffice document.

neil_jo · Blue Pill Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 4

thank you for your replies , I've read that artice you posted before and will give preview another go thanks again. Tried it again but its not going to work , if I right click the file and choose open with/ preview is grayed out and will not open the file.

Guest · Guest

hehe, looks like billy's up to his old tricks again...

http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=MDI

Can you ask the sender to save them as some other format? Or is s/he that lazy or clueless?

neil_jo · Blue Pill Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 4

The problem with sending them in a diff. formatt is that the email goes to 50 or 60 people don't think they will change it for just one. I tried changing from m.d.i. to a tiff and can veiw it sort of , but its pretty hard to read.
Guess i'll just keep useing parallels and office 03, and they are coming out with a new ms office suite for mac soon as well.