Problem with MDI format file? If you do not know how to open an MDI file, or if your file cannot be opened by MS Office Document Imaging, our article is especially for you. We will look at what files of this format are, the main reasons why they do not open, what additional free utilities exist for converting MDI to other formats.
What is an MDI file
MDI (short for Microsoft Document Imaging Format) - developed by, you guessed it, by Microsoft format file to store bitmaps scanned documents. Additionally, files of this format have the ability to store metadata (text annotations, recognized text, etc.). The format is closed - specifications in open access No.
The MDI file format is a "modified" MS TIFF format. MDI contains three types of data compression developed by MS, a large number of additional fields and non-standard key values, as well as some other minor changes.
As a result of these additions, as a result, MDI received noticeable advantages - smaller file sizes during storage with a better image quality.
Opening MDI using native programs
The main problem when trying to open an MDI file with "native" MS Office Document Imaging from the Office 2007 package is that when you double-click on a file in Explorer, it will not open. In this case, you will see a standard error window - "The following file could not be opened ...". Why is this happening? The reason is simple - you need to install the Document Imaging utility yourself, there is no on-demand installation when you try to open an MDI file.
In Office 2010, this utility is no longer available - apparently, its support is not expected in future versions.
Thus, it is necessary to install MS Office Document Imaging. To do this, follow these simple steps:
- Open a list of installed programs. You can open it either through Start - Control Panel - Programs and Features, or using the appwiz.cpl command - enter it in the Start - Run window;
- In the list that opens, find and select installed version MS Office 2007;
- Press the "Change" button;
- In the wizard that appears, select the item "Add or remove components";
- In the component selection window, in the node " Office Tools» select MS Office Document Imaging (for installation, you must specify "Run everything from my computer");
- Click the "Continue" button and wait for the installation to complete.
After these simple actions you can try to open the desired MDI file again.
Opening and converting MDI with third-party programs
If you do not use the MS office suite, or you need to open an MDI file, and the 2010 version of the package does not contain the necessary utility (MSPVIEW.EXE), we will consider several third-party utilities that allow you to work with the format in question.
Free MDI image viewer- a free utility for opening MDI files for reading
To view files with the MDI extension in read mode, the free utility Free MDI Image Viewer is suitable. It also allows you to export individual pages from an MDI file to images.
Under Windows, there is also a small utility designed to work in the mode command line. This is MS MDI to TIFF File Converter. As the name suggests, it allows you to format MDI to TIFF.
And finally, the third utility allows you to convert MDI to PDF - it is called MDI2PDF.
How to open and convert MDI for Linux and Mac
For those who use an OS other than Windows, the following options are suitable. MDI2PDF and Free MDI Image Viewer, which run with Wine (an emulator for ).
Mac owners can use the official program - Microsoft Office Document Imaging works under this OS.
On any OS, you can use the Kinati 2PDF Converter online service, which allows you to convert .
So, we have considered the main problems that may arise when trying to open the MDI extension, which third-party utilities can be used to open and convert under Windows, Linux and Mac. We hope that after reading our article, you will definitely understand how it will be better to open an mdi file in each specific case.
Most users rarely encounter MDI files. However, sometimes documents with this extension end up on their computers and cause certain problems. The thing is, to work with them, you need special program which not everyone knows about.
If you also find yourself in such an unpleasant situation and do not know how to open an MDI file, then this article is for you. Here, a description of this extension will be given, as well as programs for working with it.
Description
It is logical that before opening an MDI document, you need to figure out in which application it was created. Let's start with this. So, Microsoft Document Imaging, as you might guess from its name, was developed by Microsoft to store bitmap images obtained as a result of scanning. Besides, given format supports the ability to save various footnotes, annotations, as well as recognized text.
The official application for working with the MDI extension is the Document Imaging program included in the MS Office package. However, there is one big problem with this utility. The fact is that, for some reason, the developers decided to exclude Document Imaging from the latest Office builds, forcing ordinary users puzzle over how to open a file with the MDI extension. But, fortunately, there is a solution, and not even one.
Standard way
Despite the fact that Document Imaging has been removed from modern versions of MS Office, it can still be found. To do this, just install on your computer "Office 2007", which includes the utility. In this case, during the installation of the software package, you will need to manually set some settings. It is done like this:
- During one of the installation steps, you will be prompted to manually select the applications that you want to see on your computer. Give your consent to this operation.
- A large list of components included in MS Office will open. You will need to go to the "Office Tools" section.
- Now find Document Imaging and tick it.
- Click "Next" and wait for the installation process to complete.
After that, the program will be installed on your computer, and the question of how to open MDI documents will disappear.
Without installing "Office"
At some point, Microsoft employees realized their mistake and included Document Imaging in Share Point. Moreover, they have added the ability to download this package for free. In other words, if you still do not know how to open an MDI file, you can simply download Share Point using the search on the official Microsoft website.
This method is perfect for those who do not want to install an outdated version of MS Office. Just keep in mind that you need to download Share Point from the official site, otherwise you risk infecting your computer with some kind of malware.
Third Party Applications
It often happens that not one, but several programs are used at once to work with a certain format. This is also true for the MDI extension. So, several third-party developers have released their utilities for opening these files at once.
The first program designed for this purpose is called MDI Viewer. She can brag clear interface and high speed operation. In addition, the application is distributed free of charge, so you will not have any problems using it.
In addition, you can use one of the so-called online converters and convert MDI into a more convenient format for later work with it. For example, this feature is available in Kinati 2PDF. This is, in fact, a regular site where you upload an MDI document, and then, after a few seconds, download back the same file, but with a PDF extension.
Scanned documents are often saved in mdi files. Mdi is based on tiff but surpasses it in terms of quality and compression. In addition to bitmap graphics, mdi may contain metadata such as recognized text. This format was used in Microsoft Office Document Imaging. IN this moment the program is not supported and excluded from office suites Microsoft Office. The creators did not publish the specification, so the format is closed and supported by a small number of programs.
What free programs can open an mdi file?
- – Free utility to view mdi and some other popular image formats. The program has a nice and simple interface. On the left is the window for viewing the pages of the document, on the left one page is displayed. Above is a menu in the form of pictures. The functionality is enough. MDI Viewer supports scaling, page rotation, image printing.
- Document Imaging - previously included in MS Office (until 2010 version). Currently included in the free SharePoint package. The program works with .MID and .TIFF files. The utility consists of two applications - the viewer utility (DocumentImaging) and image scanning (DocumentScanning). In addition to viewing Document Imaging allows you to scan images, send them by fax, e-mail or send to print.
MDI files are images. The basis of the MDI extension is the TIFF format. Compared to this format, MDI has more advantages, which is why it is used more often than TIFF. The main advantages of the MDI format include a smaller size compared to the TIFF format, so they will take up less space on your computer's hard drive. In addition, compared to TIFF files, such images will have excellent quality even if lossless compression is applied to the TIFF file.
Programs that can open an MDI file
Basically MDI files are opened with installed program Microsoft Office Document. If it is not present, you must install Microsoft Office and select it to install. Using the Microsoft Office Document program, the user can not only view files in MDI format, but also use it when scanning any documents, view already scanned documents, edit scanned documents, copy them, and also perform text recognition that is in the scanned document. Thus, it turns out that the possibilities of this program are almost limitless and you can use it not only to open files in the MDI format.
Other, no less useful program, is an MDI Viewer. The capabilities of this program are not as great as those of Microsoft Office Document, but with its help the user can also open and view files in the MDI format. The interface of this program is quite simple, which means that even a beginner can handle it. Its main advantages are the ability to open files in the format: MDI, JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, etc. MDI Viewer provides the user with the ability to open graphic files in the formats presented above, their scaling, as well as printing. In addition, MDI Viewer is distributed, which means that anyone can easily find this program on the Internet and use it for their needs.
As a result, it turns out that you can open files in the MDI format quite easily and simply using Microsoft program Office Document or MDI Viewer.
Loading...