As with their PDF plug-in, the Word plug-in doesn't itself add the ability to view Word files. It uses the system frameworks used by TextEdit, since TextEdit can open the same files. That's how PDF plug-in works - it leverages the same renderer used by Preview to display PDFs.
So in both cases, the content will only be as good as TextEdit or Preview themselves would display. They essentially embed TextEdit and Preview into the browser to handle he file.
But my point is that you never did need to install Office to begin with - even without this plug-in, you could have just opened .doc, .docx, (etc) files with TextEdit.
But both the PDF and Word plug-in are very cool and convenient; the Word one is completely free, and the PDF one avoids the need to install the monolithic Adobe Reader to view PDFs inline, and it's free under some conditions (education/personal use, if I recall). So there's no reason not to install them, and it's great that they've both been updated recently after a prolonged absence.
Just as long as we all understand how it works, though, and remember that you can mix and match this document opening - in the browser via the plug-ins, or not-in-the-browser using the standard apps supplied with Mac OS X.
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It leverages TextEdit - AJJX
As with their PDF plug-in, the Word plug-in doesn't itself add the ability to view Word files. It uses the system frameworks used by TextEdit, since TextEdit can open the same files. That's how PDF plug-in works - it leverages the same renderer used by Preview to display PDFs.So in both cases, the content will only be as good as TextEdit or Preview themselves would display. They essentially embed TextEdit and Preview into the browser to handle he file.
But my point is that you never did need to install Office to begin with - even without this plug-in, you could have just opened .doc, .docx, (etc) files with TextEdit.
But both the PDF and Word plug-in are very cool and convenient; the Word one is completely free, and the PDF one avoids the need to install the monolithic Adobe Reader to view PDFs inline, and it's free under some conditions (education/personal use, if I recall). So there's no reason not to install them, and it's great that they've both been updated recently after a prolonged absence.
Just as long as we all understand how it works, though, and remember that you can mix and match this document opening - in the browser via the plug-ins, or not-in-the-browser using the standard apps supplied with Mac OS X.
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Monday, April 20 2009 @ 08:14 AM PDT