Companion file preview does not work for some word docs

Question

Hello, we have been facing this problem few months now and I have tried to find what is causing it but absolutely nothing makes sense!

When I'm opening a docx file (from space attachment page or link) the Companion app preview function is not working for some word documents and the file is just showing a blank page/pages. When I open the file to edit-mode via Companion app, it works fine and the content is showing.

Downloading the docx file to computer is working normally. PDF and XLSX are working with no problem (preview/download/edit).

Steps I've tried so far:

1. I have compared the file properties on my computer between two files: one where the preview is working and one that shows just blank pages on the preview mode. Can't spot any differences.

2. I have downloaded the document on my computer (from confluence) and moved the whole content to a new word doc and uploaded back to confluence> still not working

Now we have one page where 80% docs are not showing the preview at the moment.

Help is needed!

Br,

Maria

Cory Cave · Answer

I made this change then the missing pages displayed correctly. Thank you, TB!

Travis Benton · Answer

We had the same issue, and I found the issue to be bullets. If you have bulleted lists, make sure you're only using "-" or the solid dot bullets, the hollow circle style caused the entire page which contained them to show as blank in preview mode, other pages with dot or - style bullets displayed fine. Hope this helps!

Travis

Chu Dam · Answer

Hi @Maria Ahvenlampi

It can come from a lot of things... It's quite hard to say why and how some words are not showing preview in a Confluence page, and why some others can. Here is few possible causes:

* Encoding of the file: depending on the encoding used in your Confluence Server
* Polices used in the file: if you use specific police you probably need to install them on the Confluence Server
* Images size used in the file: if Images are too big, it can cause a rendering problem

I have experienced that few times on several Confluence installation, configuration and server, I never found a real solution for that.

My best advice here: stop using Word docs... You have the best tool for documentation and collaboration which is Confluence, use Confluence pages to build documentation and collaborate deeply on it. You can then export pages to PDF, and share it with your customers or partners.

Some of my customers even stopped paying for Microsoft Office licenses and are now using Confluence only: it cost literally an arm for companies, it's not fully collaborative, etc, etc.

This switch is hard I agree, cause we all have old habits... But it's the best way to forget about these old habits and really move to new ways of working cause we are now in the 21st century, in a "Cloud world", where people works remotely, from all around the world...

I hope this helps a bit.

Cheers,
Dam.