Many articles and blog posts have been written about the PDF workflow, and how it improves the management of digital documents; but one problem we’ve all encountered at some point is trying to locate a document that got dumped among dozens of other files.

Let’s face it, everybody knows that many personal and corporate documents do not contain meta-tags, and often have weird names comprised of timestamps, form numbers, or other codes that are virtually impossible for a human to recognize. Have you ever dealt with government forms? Maybe ‘6354B’ or ‘DD_23-F’ looks familiar? Throw a multitude of these documents into the same folder and I guarantee you’ll be searching for a few hours. But what if we can take a peek at the content of these documents without having to open them first?

The Preview Pane in Windows Vista and 7 is quickly gaining popularity because it allows you to do just that. When enabled, you can click once on a supported file type to quickly see what it contains. Nitro Reader takes advantage of this great feature by extending itsPDF rendering engine to the Windows Preview Pane, allowing an unidentified document to be visually traced among other files.

Previewing PDF files in Windows Explorer:

After installing Nitro Reader on Windows Vista or 7, browse to a folder containing PDF files and click the ‘Show the preview pane’ button to enable it.

The Preview Pane also offers easy page-scrolling functionality, and you can also rotate the page-view if the rotation of the PDF’s content makes it difficult to read.

Previewing PDF files in Microsoft Outlook:

Another application that is commonly used as a file repository is Microsoft Outlook. Storage space on hard drives and servers is no longer an issue as it was in the 90’s, so many of us are comfortable with leaving PDF attachments stored in their carrier Email for later use. Once again, what if you have hundreds of emails containing PDF attachments with obscure names? Just as we saw the Preview Pane in Windows Vista/7 Explorer, version 2007 and later of Microsoft Outlook also offers the same preview functionality, allowing Nitro Reader to display PDF attachments within Outlook without requiring extra configuration.

After installing Nitro Reader on Windows Vista or 7, find an Email in Outlook (2007 or later) with a PDF file attached and click on the attachment icon. You are then prompted with a ‘Preview file’ button that will open the Preview Pane within the Email body.

The evolution of Nitro Reader as a free, and feature-packed, PDF viewer will also include stronger integration with its operating environment. The Windows Preview Pane is one of the many examples of how Nitro Reader ties-in to the user’s workflow, making it easier to accomplish tasks both simple and complex.