Embeds for .txt and .docx files

mellodoot
  • Edited

EDIT: this has since been implemented!...for .txt files. would still be great to see this for other text formats down the line!

Every so often, people on my server will post .txt or .docx files of stories they've written. More often than not it's easier/more organized to put them in files, rather than splitting them up into separate messages. The problem is in order to read the contents, you have to download the file first. I've found that far less people interact with the work in this case, as oppose to digital art which is seamlessly embedded and easy to view inside the app.

It would be great if we could read the contents of a text file (or at least a sizeable portion of it) through an embed. Something akin to a "see more" button that drops down the contents of the .txt below the embed would definitely be a welcomed upgrade. (Example below)

8

Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • mellodoot

    People mentioned to me that if a file is really large, the embedded text would just flood the screen. Making the embed scrollable would solve this problem.

    Another point someone mentioned is that documents with many pages worth of information would be unwieldly, potentially impacting performance. If a file exceeds a certain filesize, it might be more reasonable to just download it at that point. This suggestion is meant more for smaller text files, but if there were a way to make this embed more compatible with such situations, that would be fantastic.

    1
  • Nerjal Nosk

    I do support, besides .docx extension is under Microsoft's license, though it won't be so easy, and also such files can contain images.
    I think It'd be better to have it for full text only, and also only for restricted sizes (Kind of 1Mb max)

    2
  • Divineflush1

    This is an issue I have also tried raising with Discord.
    I run a server where writers post excerpts and stories, and we need text previews like this to allow members to read without having to download the txt file.

    1
  • mellodoot

    I can say from great experience that most people don't bother clicking on a .docx or .txt download in text channels unless they're really committed. a lot of writers on my server feel very overshadowed by visual artists because their stuff is more often engaged with, due to the increased accessibility. it sucks :(

    1
  • Divineflush1
    • Edited

    Mellodot, this is something I agree to as well. But they still haven't tried to allow text preview for mobile, and it is very inconvenient for us.

    0

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