Question : Does OpenOffice allow Windows 7 preview pane to preview .doc and .xls files?

Windows 7 MS Explorer windows have an icon called "show preview pane".

It is a nice feature and windows 7 has preview handlers for things like PDFs, JPGs etc.

But, it does not provide handlers for .doc, .xls etc unless I install Office 2007 or higher.

If I install Open Office, will I get this functionality, or would I still need to buy Office 2007?

Answer : Does OpenOffice allow Windows 7 preview pane to preview .doc and .xls files?

Latest version of OpenOffice installed here on Windows 7.

No preview handlers are available for .doc and .xls files, unfortunately.

This feature is in development, however. See http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=107602