How to open MDI files in Office 2007
Posted on August 23, 2008 at 5:18 am
An MDI file, which stands for Microsoft Document Imaging, is a proprietary Microsoft image format used for storing images of scanned documents along with certain metadata about the file. If you have Office 2003 installed on your computer, you will see Microsoft Document Image Writer as a virtual printer in your list of Printers.
In case you cannot print to a normal printer or if you simply want to have a digital copy of whatever your are printing, you can print to the MDI printer and save the file with a .MDI extension. The file can only be opened by a Microsoft program, namely Microsoft Document Imaging that comes with Office 2003.
As long as you are on your own computer, you will be able to open the MDI file, but if you try to open the file on a computer that is running Office 2007 or if you decide to upgrade to Office 2007, you may notice that you can no longer open the file.
The reason this happen is because by default Office 2007 does not install Microsoft Document Imaging. So if you want to open the MDI file in Office 2007, you have to install the feature manually.
First note that if you have Microsoft OneNote installed on your computer, you can use it to open MDI files without needing to install Microsoft Document Imaging.
To install MDI, go to the Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs or Uninstall a program if you are in Vista.
Next scroll down to Microsoft Office 2007 (Professional, Standard, Home, , Plus, etc) and highlight it. You should see the Change button, so click on that.
Make sure Add/Remove Features is selected and then click on Continue.
Now expand Office Tools and click on the drop down menu next to Microsoft Office Document Imaging and select Run All From My Computer.
MDI will be installed onto your computer and you’ll see a new virtual printer called “Microsoft Office Document Image Writer” in the list of printers. You can now create MDI files and view them without a problem. Enjoy!
» Filed Under MS Office Tips
Save this page |
Stir it up on Mixx |
|
Add to Reddit |
Related Posts
- How to open files in Windows with different file extensions
- Fix for Cannot remove or delete network printer
- Configure Office 2007 to save files in older format by default
- How to install a network printer on your home or office network
- How to create, mount, and burn ISO image files for free
Save this page
Stir it up on Mixx
Add to Reddit






















THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Once I found out about MDI printing in Office 2003… I LOVED IT!
I have been quite frustrated and greatly missed this printing option. Thanks for the install information. I’m back to normal (as much as I can).
we tried this manual installation on one of our vista machines, and my guy steve sez the documents now open all garbled and unreadable.
do you know what to do now?
thanks oooooo so much.
diana
EXCELLENT. Followed your instructions on my vista machine and it worked like a charm. Thanks for the easy to follow instructions.
THANX A LOT…
THIS REALLY WORKS FOR ME
Thank you very much.
it solved my problem of opening .mdi files
Ashok
IT WAS VERY HELPFUL …………
I GREATLY APPRCIATE
BEST REGARDS,
SAMI ALI