The file manager offers a top down look on all the files on the computer system with options to zoom in and out to view the files directly the file manager.

A basic example. Say you have a few text documents or images sitting in a folder. If you zoom in closely enough, you can read the texts or view the images without opening the files at all.

This viewing mode does not work for all file types on the system, but the most basic file types are all supported. This includes the majority of media files, plain text documents and even some games or applications.

The program interface needs some getting used to time, as it looks quite messy on first glance. It basically consists of a header with direct links to folders, the configuration and file management tools, and the main area that can be used to zoom in and out of folders and drives.

It is a good idea to run the application full screen as it might otherwise be difficulty to read the button texts in the program header.

The mouse wheel is used to zoom in and out of the file and folder structure. It feels a bit strange in the beginning that it is not possible to use the mouse to move the selection around, as it happens quite often that a file is not displayed centered on screen. The user guide has an answer for that. The developers have mapped the scrolling to the middle mouse button. Hold down the middle mouse button to move around.

A double-click on a file opens it in the default viewer on the system, which is handy for all unsupported files or if you need to edit the selected file.

New users should consider reading the install and start guide as well as the general user guide on the developer website at Sourceforge to get a deeper understanding of the program. Especially the core keyboard and mouse functions are explained in the guides.

The file manager can be downloaded from the project website over at Sourceforge. The program is compatible with all recent versions of Windows and various Linux distributions.

DropDo is a fairly new service that has made the rounds lately. What makes it different from established services such as Google Docs is that it supports way more files than comparable online viewers. No supported file list is posted on the project homepage, but you’ll realize during usage that it supports many popular image, audio, video and document formats.

But before you begin to upload files to the service, you need to know that there is currently no mechanism in place to delete files. Well, that’s not entirely correct but mailing the developer with a removal request is hardly a comfortable option, and no option at all if the files are personal or important.

Accounts are promised in one of the next updates which would provide users with file management options.

To make matters worse, files are kept on the Dropdo servers indefinitely.

Dropdo users can either upload files from their local computer system or device, or directly from a web address that they paste into the form on the Dropdo page.

You do not know if the service supports the file that you want to view, unless you have uploaded a file of the same type previously. That’s problematic considering that you may end up uploading a 20 Megabyte file only to find out that the service does not support it yet.

The viewer for supported files may look different depending on the file type that you uploaded. If you upload code like php or python files for instance, you get a code viewer, if you upload music, you get an audio player.

Dropdo has a file size limit of 25 Megabytes, which should be enough for most contents but the majority of videos.

Dropdo’s strength is its impressive support of different file formats that users can view online, and the way those files are displayed on the Dropdo pages.

Extensions for Chrome and Firefox are available to directly send file links to Dropdo to view those files online.

Weaknesses are missing controls to delete files once they have been uploaded to the service and a missing list of supported file extensions. A file name check just before the upload starts would be ideal for the latter.

With accounts promised, it should be clear that Dropdo is heading in the right direction. For now, I’d only use it for non-personal file viewing.

Universal Viewer is another application that will suite many more needs. It has not only been designed to open document formats but also other formats like images and photos, multimedia files like videos or audio and Internet files like htm or xml. The program is driven by plugins that add support for various file types. The plugins are the same that are used by Total Commander which ensures the availability of many plugins for various file formats.

Universal Viewer is a viewer that displays the information in a basic but highly accessible fashion. Only the main information are shown without additional formatting. Take a look at a comparison between the same document in Microsoft Word 2007 and Universal Viewer:

Universal Viewer is therefor a basic viewer that can display pretty much any format that can be displayed visually. It comes with the following feature set:

• Full support for Unicode filenames
• Built-in functions of several popular plugins: images, multimedia, webpages view
• Support for multiple codepages: ANSI, OEM, EBCDIC, ISO, KOI8, Mac etc.
• Toolbar, status bar, other interface improvements
• Auto-reloading of file on changing, “Follow tail” option
• Displaying of line numbers
• Displaying of non-printable characters
• Combined Unicode/Hex mode (call Unicode mode twice)
• More modern RegEx search library
• Print preview
• EXIF viewer

Some of the more commonly used plugins, for example to display Microsoft Office 2007 documents are linked from the developers homepage directly while others can be found on Total Commander plugin websites which are also linked there. Plugins can be added directly from within Universal Viewer.

Universal Viewer itself can be downloaded as a portable version or installer. The developer offers a Pro version of the viewer as well which adds several new features to the application.

Verdict:

Universal Viewer is a fast and lightweight document viewer that can be used to quickly look at the contents of virtually any files on the computer system.