What program to open the mdi file. How to open mdi file

Files with the MDI extension are designed specifically for storing primarily large images obtained after scanning. Support for official software from Microsoft is currently suspended, so third-party programs are required to open such documents.

Initially, to open files with this extension, the MS Office package included special utility Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI), which can be used to solve the problem. We will consider software exclusively from third party developers, since the above program is no longer available.

Method 1: MDI2DOC

The MDI2DOC program for Windows OS is designed to simultaneously view and convert documents with the MDI extension. The software has a simple interface with all the necessary tools for comfortable studying the contents of files.

Note: The application requires the purchase of a license, but to access the viewer you can use the version "FREE" with limited functionality.

1. Download and install the software on your computer, following the standard prompts. The final stage of installation takes quite a long time.



2. Open the program using a shortcut on your desktop or from a folder on your system drive.



3. Expand the menu on the top panel "File" and select "Open".



4. Through the window "Open file to process" find the document with the MDI extension and click on the button "Open".



5. After this, the content from the selected file will appear in the work area.

   

   Using the top toolbar, you can change the view of the document and turn pages.

   

   Navigation through sheets of an MDI file is also possible through a special block on the left side of the program.

   

   You can convert the format by clicking the button "Export to external format" on the toolbar.

This utility allows you to open both simplified versions of MDI documents and files with many pages and graphic elements. Moreover, not only this format is supported, but also some others.

Method 2: MDI Converter

MDI Converter software is an alternative to the software discussed above and allows you to both open and convert documents. It can be used only after purchase or free during a 15-day trial period.

1. After downloading and installing the program in question, run it from the root folder or from the desktop.

   

   When opening, an error may occur that does not affect the operation of the software in any way.



2. On the toolbar, use the button "Open".



3. Through the window that appears, go to the directory with the MDI file, select it and click the button "Open".



4. When processing is complete, the first page of the document appears in the main area of ​​MDI Converter.

   

   Using the panel "Pages" You can navigate between existing sheets.

   

   The tools in the top bar allow you to control the content viewer.

   

   Button "Convert" is designed to convert files with the MDI extension to other formats.

On the Internet you can find free program MDI Viewer, which is an earlier version of the software discussed, can also be used. The software interface has a minimum of differences, and the functionality is limited solely to viewing files in MDI and some other formats.

Conclusion

In some cases, when using programs, content corruption or errors may occur when opening MDI documents. However, this rarely happens and therefore you can safely resort to any of the methods to achieve the desired result.

A simple but nice program for viewing files in MDI format. It only allows you to view documents and save individual pages as images.

Screenshot gallery

No matter how much we curse MicroSoft company, and there’s no way without her - even Windows itself is her work :). But, in addition to the system itself, the corporation has also created many applications for it, which have become standards and benchmarks in their field.

An example of such a standard can be considered the Microsoft Office office software package, which has grown to incredible sizes today. Usually, when talking about Office, we mean, first of all, its most popular components: text Word editor, table processor Excel and Power Point presentation development system. However, these programs are only a small part of the entire office “colossus”.

And today I would like to talk about one component of the office suite from MicroSoft that is not the most popular, but which causes a lot of trouble for users - Microsoft Office Document Imaging. This program allows you to work with scanned materials in TIFF and MDI formats. And, if TIFF scans can be opened using third-party viewers and converters, then the MDI format is closed, so third party software there is very little to even open it.

MODI for free!

It is worth immediately making a reservation about the original Microsoft Office Document Imaging package. Since MicroSoft removed it from the original Office (as of 2010), it has been available as a component in the free SharePoint Designer 2007 developer suite.

Therefore, if you are not afraid of downloading an almost 300-megabyte installer from which we only need to install one small component, then download SharePoint and during installation select the “Unavailable” value for all components except MODI.

Are there any alternatives?

Until recently there was free version popular MDI viewer MDI2PDF Converter, which allowed you to open files and convert them into a more digestible PDF format. But all good things tend to come to an end, that’s why this program became completely paid, leaving only the ability to view in the free edition.

So we set out to find her after all. free analogue and after a long search we found a small application called Free MDI in the vastness of the bourgeois internet Image Viewer.

Features of the program

• viewing MDI documents;
• multi-page TIFF viewing (undocumented feature);
• Convert MDI to JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF and TIF graphic formats;
• preservation of the OCR layer when converting to TIF.

As we see, with available functions It’s sparse, but in the absence of a better option, you can use what you have on hand.

Installing and preparing the program for operation

Installation is carried out using a standard installer, with which there should be no problems. There is no need to change anything during installation, so all our actions come down to clicking the “Next” button. After the installation process is completed, we will see the main window of Free MDI Image Viewer:

By default, it opens to full screen, which is not very convenient, but it can be easily reduced to the desired size using the mouse. If you are not confused by the English-language interface of the program, then you can start using it without additional manipulations.

If you want to Russify Free MDI Image Viewer, then replace original file « FreeMDIImageViewer.exe" in the "Program Files" folder with a similar file that you will find in the archive downloaded from our website. In addition to the Russification of the menu, you will also get the opportunity to open files in TIF and TIFF formats (including multi-page ones!).

Working with a Russified program

Unfortunately, Free MDI Image Viewer does not support the Drag&Drop function, so you will have to open files for viewing using the menu of the program itself. Open the first “File” menu and click the “Open” button. A file selection window will appear with the filter for MDI files active by default. However, if you used our localization tool, then by clicking on the “File Type” field, you can also select filters for TIF and TIFF documents:

Let’s not be too clever and choose what we installed the program for, that is, the MDI file. We highlight required file and click open. Be prepared for the fact that Free MDI Image Viewer can take quite a long time to open your MDI document and sometimes even freeze! Be patient and wait a minute - the file should open:

In file viewing mode, the program's workspace is divided into two panels:

• on the left is a thumbnail panel that displays thumbnails of document pages;
• on the right is a viewing panel for the selected page thumbnail.

With help context menu or the “View” menu we can control page viewing (although it’s easier to do this with the mouse). Alas, here you will not find functions for rotating scanned images and cropping them, but they are not required so often. A function for selecting and copying a layer of recognized text directly from the program would also be useful.

Looking at the thumbnail panel, it seems like the text on the page thumbnails still stands out, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Perhaps in the next releases of the program the author will implement this feature, but for now we will have to be content with little...

Export to graphic formats and extract content

So, viewing MDI and multi-page TIFF files is good in itself, but not enough :). It would be desirable to somehow convert the document into a more universal form, and ideally also extract text and pictures from it. Not without unnecessary hemorrhoids, but it is possible to do this using Free MDI Image Viewer. To do this, first of all you need to go to the “File” menu and select the “Save As” list:

The program allows us to convert an MDI document into one of the popular graphic formats (JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF and TIF) of your choice. There are a couple of features:

1. For all formats (except TIF), saving is done page by page. That is, you will have to manually select each page and save it under a new name.
2. The TIF format is saved in multi-page mode by default. That is, all pages of an MDI document are packed into one graphic file without the need to save them separately. Moreover, if we open such a TIF image with a regular graphic viewer, we will see only the first page. To view all the others, you will need either an advanced photo viewer, or a special reader, or a full-fledged graphic editor.
3. The good news is that when saving in TIF, Free MDI Image Viewer sometimes saves the layer with the recognized text, if it existed in the original MDI file. The only trouble is that due to the complex structures in this layer, the program sometimes refuses to save in TIF, giving an error :(. In this case, we will have to use page-by-page conversion to regular graphic files.

Now that our MDI file has been converted, it's time to think about how we can extract the contents from it. The simplest and universal method here, of course, text recognition using special programs.

Of the free ones, alas, there is only one single application, CuneiForm, which is on our website. You will need to open all saved images in it and recognize them, saving text and graphic data to a file.

Things are somewhat more complicated with the TIF format... Ruslan Bogdanov once told me that multi-page TIF files can be opened in Photoshop and copied text from the recognition layer. However, I deliberately tried to repeat the experiment and nothing worked for me :(. Moreover, on the Internet I found many pages of debates about this possibility and almost all of them boiled down to the fact that such a function is a myth...

Nevertheless, the format opens successfully in the graphic editor GIMP, although I was unable to copy text from the file :(.

There is an even more difficult path, which is still more likely to lead you to success. This method consists of converting a TIF file into PDF format, and then using a viewer to try to copy the text from it.

You can turn a TIFF document into PDF, for example, using the graphic file viewer FastStone Image Viewer, and the easiest way to try to copy text is Foxit Reader.

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

• viewing MDI files;
• ability to view multi-page TIFF documents;
• page-by-page export to graphic formats;
• export to multipage TIF with recognition layer support.

• files take too long to open;
• there is no way to copy text from the recognition layer;
• no direct export to PDF function;
• export to TIF is not always correct.

conclusions

In the form of Free MDI Image Viewer we have a simple, but work program to view MDI documents. If it is not possible to install “native” Microsoft Office Document Imaging, this application is perhaps the only one possible way open scans created in it. And not just open it, but also save it in the form of images, which can then be recognized or even printed.

It’s just not always upsetting stable work program and the lack of a 64-bit version (although it may work on 64-bit systems - try it ;)). Good luck to you and less headaches with various formats :).

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Announcement

MDI Page Layout File Format

The MDI (Microsoft Document Imaging) file extension was originally created by Microsoft as one of the components of the Office products. This file type is used by Microsoft to save documents that have been scanned into your device. These images can then be used in an optical character recognition program, which scans the document's graphics and converts it into text. The specified process allows you to create DOC files - standard Microsoft documents Word. Typically, an MDI file can only be created by software Microsoft, which is specifically designed for this purpose. Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) is a standard part of Office XP - in versions 2003 and 2007.

Technical information about MDI files

When MODI saves text after it has been OCRed, the text is saved in TIFF format. However, the resulting TIFF file does not meet the standards of typical TIFF files. Because of this, the file can only be used in the MODI program. Although the MODI format was standard in Office XP for several years, it is no longer supported. This means that if you have an old document that was created in MODI and has an MDI file extension, you will not be able to open it unless you have old version Office XP. You will need to convert the MDI file to a format that can be processed by your operating system.

Additional information about the MDI format

Most users very rarely encounter MDI files. However, sometimes documents with this extension end up on their computers and cause certain problems. The fact is that to work with them you need special program, which not everyone knows about.

If you find yourself in such an unpleasant situation and don’t know how to open an MDI file, then this article is just for you. A description of this extension will be provided here, as well as programs for working with it will be discussed.

Description

It is logical that before opening an MDI document, you need to figure out what application it was created in. Let's get started with this. So, Microsoft Document Imaging, as you might guess from its name, was developed by Microsoft for storing raster images obtained as a result of scanning. Besides, this format supports the ability to save various footnotes, annotations, and recognized text.

Official application To work with the MDI extension, use 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 to puzzle over how to open a file with the MDI extension. But, fortunately, there is a solution, and not just one.

Standard method

Although Document Imaging has been removed from modern versions of MS Office, it can still be found. To do this, just install Office 2007 on your computer, which includes the utility. In this case, during the installation of the software package, you will need to manually set some settings. This is done like this:

1. At one stage of the installation, you will be asked to manually select the applications that you want to see on your computer. Give your consent to this operation.
2. A large list of components included in MS Office will open. You will need to go to the Office Tools section.
3. Now find Document Imaging and check the box.
4. Click “Next” and wait for the installation process to complete.

After this, 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 as part of Share Point. Moreover, they have added the option to download this package for free. In other words, if you still don’t know how to open an MDI file, you can simply download Share Point by searching 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 website, 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 to work with a certain format. This is also true for the MDI extension. So, several third-party developers immediately released their utilities for opening these files.

The first program designed for this purpose is called MDI Viewer. It boasts a clear interface and high speed. 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 subsequent work with it. For example, such an opportunity 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 the same file back, but with a PDF extension.

Microsoft Document Imaging (or MDI for short) is used by the program from the main Windows package called Microsoft Office Document Imaging. The basis is the TIFF format, but MDI has many advantages. For example, it not only provides best quality images, but also has a smaller file size. It is also worth saying that it is possible to save text along with images in both formats. However, you can only edit MDI format images in the native program.

The program itself from the office suite has both advantages and disadvantages. A user-friendly interface allows you to increase the usable area of ​​​​the monitor screen and reduce clutter. Application windows can be shown, hidden, maximized and minimized. Children can be placed in a cascade or tiling in the main window. It is also important to note the memory savings and increased speed when working in one window. The program provides “hot button combinations” that allow you to use fast navigation, which makes working with the application even faster and more convenient, since no additional resources are used.

It is quite difficult to display the content of multiple windows on different monitors, and it is also impossible to display content on different virtual desktops. In addition, when working with the MDI format, which you already know to open, it is difficult to work simultaneously with several applications at the same time, since switching between windows is quite inconvenient. There is also some chaos in the program if several windows are open at the same time.

It should be said that the “native” program is included only in the Office 2007 package; in earlier versions, the question will again arise when the MDI format appears, how to open it. You won't be able to install Document Imaging on Windows XP either. If you do not have a program from the Office 2007 office suite, or you do not want to spend money on it, the MDI Viewer program may be useful to you.

However, even developing from a package may not always open the MDI extension. To resolve this issue, you need to do the following.

If, when you double-click on the MDI file in the program from the package, the file does not open, but instead an error message appears on the desktop, you must follow the steps below. The reason for the failure is that the program is not installed when the MDI file is opened.

1. In the “Start” menu, select the “Run” line, enter the command appwiz.cpl, then click “OK”.

2. Listed installed programs You need to select the version of Office 2007 installed on your computer.

3. Select the “Change” button.

4. Select “Add components”, then click on “Continue”.

5. You need to expand the “Office Tools” node.

6. Here we select Microsoft Office Document Imaging, set the value for the program to “Run all”.

7. Click on the “Continue” button.

These steps should help resolve the problem with the MDI format rather than opening it.

Alternatively, the file can be exported to tiff format using MDI Viewer, which you can download for free. So, having seen the MDI format, you know how to open it: either with a program from the Office 2007 package, or using MDI Viewer. This is a fairly simple development, although a little inconvenient compared to the program from Office, which allows you to view MDI files, as well as print, export to TIFF, scale the image in height and width, and rotate it by an angle of 90°.

With development computer technology, the development of new programs and more advanced operating systems, more and more new ones appear, and they are not always very easy to open and edit. Many updated data formats that were developed after the release of Office 2007 cannot be opened by standard software on later operating systems. Sometimes you even have to use online convectors to convert. After all, not everyone today can install the latest operating system. I hope that now, when you see an MDI file, how to open it, you will know for sure.