Vista Index Corel WordPerfect X3 wpd files?

[Brian Bradley]

I can't get Vista (Business) to index the CONTENT of WordPerfect documents
whose filenames have the default WP document extension of ".wpd."

I've carefully configured and reconfigured the Vista Indexing settings to
include files with the ".wpd" extension.

I have rebuilt the Vista Index several times.

Vista associates and recognizes .wpd files as WordPerfect X3 files, assigns
to them the correct icon, and opens them from within Windows Explorer using
WP X3.

Oddly, Vista will correctly Index the filename AND CONTENTS of WordPerfect
X3 MACROS, whose filenames end in the default WP macro filename extension of
".wcm."

I've checked the Corel.com Knowledgebase, with no luck.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is anyone able to get Vista to index the CONTENT of WordPerfect document
files?
2. If so, did Vista do it "out of the box," or did you have to make some
changes to the Vista Indexer?

Brian
San Diego

 

[Andrew McLaren]

I can't get Vista (Business) to index the CONTENT of WordPerfect documents
whose filenames have the default WP document extension of ".wpd."

Hi Brian,

Out of the box, Vista does not index WordPerfect files. You'll need to get
an search "iFilter" for WordPerfect.

Windows Desktop Search (WDS, which is the search engine in Vista) uses a
pluggable design, so that 3rd party vendors can create and supply
installable plug-ins (called iFilters) for their applications. For example,
Vista out-of-the box does not know how to index PDF Files. But when you
intsall Adobe Acrobat Reader, or the full Acrobat product, onto Vista it
installs a PDF iFilter and your PDF Files suddenly become searchable.

The same iFilter is also used for Sharepoint, and Windows Desktop Search on
XP and Windows Server 2003. So many vendor are producing iFilters for their
own document types. See
http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.DesktopSearchIFilters

I'm not sure if WordPerfect X3 installs the Coreil iFilter by default or
not. It's interesting your *.wcm files contents are bing indexed; but maybe
that's being done by the plain text filter?

Corel did release an iFilter for WordPerfect versions 8 to 12 (same filter
works on all versions) Whether it works on WordPerfct X3 I'm not sure
(have't looked at WordPerfect since 5.1, although I used to love it back
then). A quick Google trawl found these links:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2005/11/29/77181.aspx
http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=14942
ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/WordPerfect/wpwin/8/

Maybe check Corel's knowledgebase for "ifilter" to see if they have any
additional info.

Good luck, hope this helps a bit,

 

[Brian Bradley]

Out of the box, Vista does not index WordPerfect files. You'll need to get
an search "iFilter" for WordPerfect.

Thanks, Andrew, for all that good info. I visited all the links you provided
and learned a lot . . . but no joy:

1. Imported WPIFilter.reg. Rebooted. No noticeable change in file-handling
or indexing behavior.

2. Rebuilt Index. Rebooted. No noticeable change in file-handling or
indexing behavior.

3. Ran WPIFilter.exe. Rebooted. No noticeable change in file-handling or
indexing behavior.

4. Rebuilt Index. Rebooted. No noticeable change in file-handling or
indexing behavior.

5. Imported WPIFilter.reg again (in case WPIFilter.exe should have been run
first). Rebooted. No noticeable change in file-handling or indexing
behavior.

I haven't examined too closely what changes were made to Vista, if any. I
presume that I have a new dll file(s) somewhere and that I have a new
registry entry(s) somewhere.

I noticed that during the execution of WPIFilter.exe, a dialog mentioned
"Windows Index Server" (not Windows Desktop Search).

I noticed that a confirmation dialog during the import of WPIFilter.reg
mentioned "WP7.doc."

Stepping back a bit, I don't understand why, after installing Corel
WordPerfect Office, there exists an entry in the Advanced properties dialog
of Indexing Service for the ".wpd" extension with a corresponding label of
"WPD Filter." Is that not an IFilter designation?

I'll contact Corel support and see if I can get some guidance, and will
report back.

Brian
San Diego

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Stepping back a bit, I don't understand why, after installing Corel
WordPerfect Office, there exists an entry in the Advanced properties
dialog of Indexing Service for the ".wpd" extension with a corresponding
label of "WPD Filter." Is that not an IFilter designation?

Yeah, it sure sounds like it. Just to add an extra wrinkle, not all iFilters
designed for Windows Desktop Search in XP or ealier versions of Sharepoint,
can work on Vista. Gee, Microsoft breaking compatibility again? Well, yes;
in this case for security reasons: older iFilters would create temp files in
unsecured directories which was a vulnerability. To work in Vista, an
iFilter must follow the security guidlines. So maybe the Corel iFilter has
in fact installed itself, but isn't running because it isn't Vista
compatible. But that's just a wild stab-in-the dark theory ...

I'll contact Corel support and see if I can get some guidance, and will
report back.

Let us know how you get on; I'd be interested to hear the final outcome.

Good luck!!