How to open mdi file. How to open MDI? Get a universal file viewer

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. At the moment, the program is not supported and excluded from Microsoft Office suites. 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?

1. - A free utility for viewing 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.
2. 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.

Have a problem opening .mdi files? We collect information about file formats and can explain what MDI files are. Additionally, we recommend programs that are most suitable for opening or converting such files.

What is the .MDI file format for?

Extension .mdi belongs to the Microsoft Document Imaging (MDI) file format, being associated with its corresponding file type ( .mdi). MDI is a legacy Microsoft (MS) proprietary format based on the TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format.

MDI was developed within the Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) system. MODI was included in all past releases of MS Office until it was discontinued by MS and MODI was dropped from MS Office 2010 and later releases. The MODI system can still be manually installed using the installation packages provided by MS.



File .mdi is a digital image file in MDI format. As with TIFF, files .mdi may contain multi-page images as well as text data (eg OCR result). With MODI installed, MDI files can be created from any MS Office document by printing to the MODI Writer virtual printer.

MDI is a format that was only used within MS Office, so its use should be avoided in favor of standard formats such as TIFF. Remaining files .mdi can be easily converted using many converter utilities and online services to other document formats (

Microsoft Document Imaging (or MDI for short) is used by a program in the core Windows package called Microsoft Office Document Imaging. The basis is the TIFF format, but MDI has many advantages. For example, it not only provides better image quality, but also has a smaller file size. It is also worth mentioning that it is possible to save text along with images in both formats. However, you can only edit MDI 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 screen area of ​​the monitor and reduce clutter. Application windows can be shown, hidden, maximized, and minimized. Children can be placed in a cascade or tile in the main window. It is also important to note the savings in memory and the increase in speed while working in one window. The program provides "hot key combinations" that allow you to use quick navigation, which makes working with the application even faster and more convenient, since it does not involve additional resources.

It is rather 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, than opening which, you already know, it is difficult to work simultaneously with several applications at the same time, since switching between windows is quite inconvenient. And also there is 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 than to open it. Installing Document Imaging on Windows XP also fails. In the event that 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 come in handy.

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

If double-clicking an MDI file in a packaged program does not open it, and instead an error message appears on the desktop, follow the steps below. The reason for the failure is that the program is not installed when opening the MDI file.

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

2. In the list of installed programs, select the version of Office 2007 installed on your computer.

3. Select the "Change" button.

4. Select the item "Add components", then click on "Continue".

5. Expand the "Office Tools" node.

6. Here we select Microsoft Office Document Imaging, set the value for the "Run All" program.

7. Click on the "Continue" button.

These steps should solve the problem with the MDI format before opening it.

In addition, the file can be exported to tiff format using the MDI Viewer program, 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 with the help of the 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, rotate by 90̊°.

With the development of computer technology, the development of new programs and more advanced operating systems, more and more new ones appear. And it is far from always very easy to open and edit them. Many of the updated data formats that were developed after the introduction of the 2007 Office operating system cannot be opened on later operating systems with the standard software package. 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 the MDI format file, than to open it, you will know for sure.

The most common problem that prevents users from opening this file is an incorrectly assigned program. To fix this in Windows, you need to right-click on the file, in the context menu, move the mouse over the "Open with" item, and select the "Choose a program ..." item from the drop-down menu. As a result, you will see a list of installed programs on your computer, and you can select the appropriate one. We also recommend checking the box next to "Use this application for all MDI files".

Another problem that our users also encounter quite often is that the MDI file is corrupted. This situation can arise in many cases. For example: the file was not fully downloaded as a result of a server error, the file was damaged initially, etc. To fix this problem, use one of the recommendations:

• Try to find the desired file in another source on the Internet. You may be lucky to find a better version. Google search example: "File filetype:MDI" . Just replace the word "file" with the name you want;
• Ask to send you the original file again, it may have been damaged during transfer;

Files with the MDI extension are specifically designed to store mostly large scanned images. 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 a special Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) utility, which can be used to solve the task. 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 is designed to simultaneously view and convert documents with the MDI extension. The software has a simple interface with all the necessary tools for a comfortable study of the contents of files.

Note: The application requires the purchase of a license, but you can use the version to access the viewer. "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 lot of time.



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



3. Expand the menu on the top bar File and select the item Open.



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



5. After that, the content from the selected file will appear in the workspace.

   

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

   

   Navigation through the 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

The MDI Converter software is an alternative to the above software and allows you to both open and convert documents. You can use it only after purchase or for 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.



2. Use the button on the toolbar 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 will appear in the main area of ​​the MDI Converter.

   

   Panel Pages you can move between existing sheets.

   

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

   

   Button Convert is designed to convert MDI files to other formats.

On the Internet, you can find the free MDI Viewer program, which is an earlier version of the considered software, you can also use it. 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.