In-line Viewing of MS Office Docs

Overview

This technical note explains Lexbe’s recommended Chrome native viewer add-on, created by Google, that displays MS Office documents directly in the Originals tab of the Lexbe eDiscovery Platform (LEP).

Background

Upon ingestion, LEP will attempt to process and convert compatible files to PDF for ease of review and will maintain and make available for download the native file in the Originals tab of the LEP Doc Viewer.  When native review is preferred, Lexbe recommends a Google Chrome add-on that populates the LEP Doc Viewer Originals tab with a native viewer that can open MS Office documents. This add-on is supported for Google Chrome on Windows and MAC.

Advantages

• • Speeds review in native format without having to download file

  • Includes read-only native program functionality and navigation

  • Option to download native file directly

  • Tab views supported for Excel spreadsheets

  • Offered directly by Google in the Chrome browser (compliance standards upheld)

LEP In-line Views

Native Excel File

Native PowerPoint File

Formats supported:

Microsoft Word

.doc

.docx

Microsoft Excel

.xls

.xlsx

Microsoft Powerpoint

.ppt

.pptx

Instructions

• 1. Required web browser is Google Chrome

  2. Update to the latest released version of Chrome, if needed 

  3. Find the extension link Here

  4. Click “Add to Chrome” button

  5. In the next pop-up screen, click “Add Extension” (it may take 1-2 minutes to complete)

Additional Information

• • Please note, even though the name of the add-on extension is “Office Editing”, LEP will not save any edits made to the original file in the Original tab as per industry best practices of maintaining litigation documents in read-only format; LEP original tab is read-only.

  • While in the native viewer, if any adjustments are made to the original file (expanded columns, etc), a red box will appear stating edits will not be saved.  A reviewer can ignore this message, but if the ‘Save now’ link is clicked, the site will prompt a download of the original file (again, no edits can be saved to the Original tab of the LEP Doc Viewer).

• • Control numbers, Bates numbers etc. will not embed in the native file.

  • Redactions, annotations, etc. should be applied to the converted PDF contained in the PDF tab of the LEP Doc Viewer; if manual conversions are needed, please contact Lexbe’s Professional Service team at professionalservices@lexbe.com