Office files cannot be opened unless the Office package or another compatible office suite is installed on the host computer. Therefore, sharing presentations, spreadsheets and documents you created with people who do not own an Office suite might be tricky. However, there is a way that you could avoid all those issues: you can first convert the Office files to images and then share them, as all computers have an associated picture viewer.

Suggestively called Convert Office to Images, this particular application is nothing more than a conversion tool for Office documents. It takes Word, Excel or Powerpoint files as input and outputs pictures of various formats, namely JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP. These types of files can be easily opened with the Windows’ integrated viewer so there is no need to install third party software to allow others to see your presentations, documents or sheets.

Working with Convert Office to Images is as simple as possible. The straightforward interface layout comprises a table that hosts all the input files, providing columns for their name, size, timestamp and location. For each document, you can specify a range. To be more specific, it is possible to define a page or slide range for documents or Powerpoint presentations, respectively, and a range for a specific sheet number in case Excel files are used as input.

Alternatively, you can import a list of files, if you already have the input files in a text document, or use drag and drop to choose the input.

As expected, the application can successfully convert single files but note that it also features batch capabilities. In other words, it can process multiple input files in one go, regardless of whether they are Excel spreadsheets, Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. Please keep in mind that Office is mandatory for the conversion to take place. Instances of Office applications open during the conversion but you must not interact with them.

Another features worth mentioning is related to the automatic file naming. From the Options window, you can easily configure a filename pattern using shortcuts for the slide number, the document name, the file date or the entire timestamp (date and time).

You might not think you need an application such as Convert Office to Images, as you can easily take a snapshot of any opened Office document and then share it with others. However, this application can generate such snapshots in batch mode much easier and faster for multiple files at once.