Convert To

Right clicking on a bmp file in Windows XP brings up a menu which includes an option to CONVERT TO -- Word Document, Word Perfect Document, Clipboard, and some others. It does not seem to work on any other type of image file.

Question: Is this feature available in other OS's than XP? Or on other image files than bmp's?

 

I do not know if XP is the same, but in this situation in 98SE I
would just add some registry entries to the .bmp file definition
- assuming you have the SW to do such conversions.
Like Irfan for example,
regards

 

You're missing my question. I'm not looking for how to do something, I'm asking if the right-click menu item CONVERT TO is present in OS's other than XP.

 

davott-- "Convert To" is not offered in Win98 by right clicking a file.
On the other, it is quite simple in Win98 to set up a C:\Windows\Send To folder, fill it with shortcuts to various programs like Word, Notepad, Irfanview, Fax, Favorites, etc., and then by right clicking on any file, the Send To drop-down menu permits sending that item directly to the program chosen. That sounds similar to what you can do in XP, though perhaps one more click is required to get the drop-down menu. On the other hand it is completely customizable, rather than being limited to the choices Windows has made for you. (Perhaps Convert To is also customizable??)

 

davott

Your context menu must be the result of installation of another program. My XP does not have a convert to entry on any image file. I don't remember ever having the choice from win 3.11 thru XP PRO.

What image program do you use?

 

Let me start from the top:

Friend of mine was having trouble OCR scanning a German language document. I got the document, scanned and saved it as a bitmap file. I then right-clicked on its icon, and the menu presented me with the option to CONVERT TO -- Word Document, Word Perfect Document, etc. I converted it to Word, opened it there, and found a perfectly readable textual file. Clicked on the Translate tool, and got the English translation (a bit garbled, but definitely understandable). So, you see this has no relation to the SEND TO option.

Now, it is possible that my default image viewer, IRFANVIEW, may have something to do with this by virtue of some plug-in. But, the steps I've described above did not include invoking IRFANVIEW. This is not to say that IRFANVIEW and its plug-ins is not lurking in the background, but I have no way of knowing that.

 

I have Irfanview also and I get no "Convert To" in the context menu.

It probably is your Scanner Program that put the convert to in your context menu. It converts the OCR scan into another word processing program if you like rather than using the native program built into the scanner software. Converting to another language would be a function of the WP you use.

I'm guessing here as I don't use OCR or Word anymore. At any rate I think it isn't a function of the operating system in use but is an add on from installation of another program.