How to open an existing WORD DOCX file

[issak]

Hi

 

I have created a Word Document. I want to add a link to my catalog page. how can I open/view the document when I click on the link

for example:

 

my file is on localhost.

 

C:\xampp\htdocs\catalog\test.docx

 

i am using this code <a href="http:\\test.docx" target="_blank"><u>ACE Retail Knowledge Base online document</u></a>

the PROBLEM is its trying to open as some kind of .zip file

 

i just want to open my word document.

 

please help. thanks

[hubcat]

I could be wrong on this, but I don't think you can open a word file. That assumes the person opening it has MS Word, which is not free. I believe you can only download a word doc. (I could be wrong on this, but I believe that is correct.) Best option would be to translate your word doc into a pdf, which will definitely open.

 

Adrienne

[Guest]

docx files are terrible... translate to pdf like Adrienne suggested or better yet, put it in html.

[issak]

I could be wrong on this, but I don't think you can open a word file. That assumes the person opening it has MS Word, which is not free. I believe you can only download a word doc. (I could be wrong on this, but I believe that is correct.) Best option would be to translate your word doc into a pdf, which will definitely open.

 

Adrienne

 

 

Hello Adrienne,

 

yes u r right at this point. Word docs. sucks, lol... as you suggest I will try to open in pdf. very good idea.

 

thanks

[issak]

docx files are terrible... translate to pdf like Adrienne suggested or better yet, put it in html.

 

 

Hello,

 

I am working on as Adrienne suggest. Word docs. sucks, lol... I will try to open in pdf. very good idea.

 

thanks

[Guest]

additionally even if you were to use a word file you would really need to make it a .doc vs a .docx

.docx is word 2007 and cannot be opened by 2003, a lot of people are still on 2003.

[MrPhil]

my file is on localhost.

 

C:\xampp\htdocs\catalog\test.docx

 

i am using this code <a href="http:\\test.docx" target="_blank"><u>ACE Retail Knowledge Base online document</u></a>

the PROBLEM is its trying to open as some kind of .zip file

 

You've confirmed that the document is on the server machine, in a location that is accessible to the server from HTML? If C:\xampp\htdocs\ is your site root, and osC is installed under catalog\, that should work (but see comments below).

 

Note: it's a VERY BAD IDEA to run a public web site from "do it yourself" WAMPP/XAMPP type servers. Unless you really know what you're doing, hackers will find it disgustingly easy to break into your server and site. If this is just for local testing, and you will be moving to a real server for production, then it's OK.

 

http:\\test.docx won't work. First of all, you will need http://site name/catalog/test.docx. Note the direction of the slashes. For both standalone testing and production running, just href="/catalog/test.docx" should be enough -- you don't need http://site name unless it's to be found on a different site.

 

I will second the comments made about the unsuitability of Word documents for the purpose of being opened "live" (not downloaded). Even if downloaded, your customer will require Word, so PDF or some other free format would be better. Besides, most servers won't know how to "serve up" a .docx file (you will need server configuration entrie(s) to fix that, otherwise they'll just prompt for download), while they should know what to do with a .pdf file. If you look around, I'm sure there are some utilities that can convert .doc(x) to .pdf, or maybe .doc(x) -> some open format such as .odw (Open Office) -> .pdf.