Comparison
DocPreview vs Foretaste
Both find the documents a web page links to and open them in your browser without saving them first, and neither uploads them, by each one’s own account. Foretaste also opens archives, data files and media, and shows how much of each file it read.
Everything said about DocPreview here is in its own words, from its own listing or policy, read on 13 October 2026. Sources
01
Side by side
| What | DocPreview | Foretaste |
|---|---|---|
| What it opens | “Detect and preview online document(Excel, Word, PowerPoint, CSV, PDF files from web pages.” S1 Quoted as written. Elsewhere the listing names “DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, CSV, and PDF”. | Those five, plus XLS, OpenDocument text, sheets and slides, TSV, text and code, pictures, audio, video, archives, subtitles, fonts, SQLite databases, Parquet datasets, EPUB, calendars and contacts. |
| Finding the files on a page | “Seamless Integration: The extension dectect web page document files and show in document file lists in sidepanel.” S1 Quoted as written. The listing says the list is filled from a button: “click the button refresh, it will dectect document files.” | A small button appears beside file links as the page loads, so one file opens without a list. Find files on this page lists every file the page links to, grouped by kind, for free. |
| Where the file is read | “The previews are rendered using secure, built-in browser technologies and no need to upload to other server .” S1 Quoted as written. The listing also says the developer “will not collect or use your data”. | In Foretaste’s own tab, or a panel over the page. No file, file name or address goes to a Foretaste server, and a build check fails on any network beacon in the extension. |
| Archives | None among the formats its listing names. S1 | ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR and more, with the documents inside them opened in the same tab. A remote ZIP is listed from its index: about 67 KB read of a 40 MB archive. |
| How much of a file is read | “Click on a document name, and it opens in a clean, view-only mode right in your browser .” S1 The listing does not say how much of a file is fetched to show it. | Shown under every file, as measured by the reader. A ZIP is read from its index. With Foretaste’s own PDF engine, a choice in Settings, a PDF is drawn from the ranges each page needs, so page one does not wait for the whole file. |
02
Foretaste, reading a Word document
The real viewer, running on this page. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded: scroll it, press things.
The real Foretaste viewer reading sample.docx on a measured Letter page, running on this page.
Word document1.2 KBWords 30
- Tables
- 1
- Page
- Letter
- Type
- application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
The whole file was read - 1.2 KB.
How this was read
- Asked how big it is—
- Asked for the whole file1.2 KB
Processed locally · Foretaste reads files on your device and does not upload them.
External viewer · Google fetches the file themselves.
What the site said about this file
- Name
- sample.docx
- Kind
- Word document
- Reported type
- application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
- Size
- 1.2 KB
- Partial reads
- Supported. Foretaste can read part of the file without fetching all of it.
- Address
- http://localhost:8797/sample.docx
Reads the whole file to compare against a published checksum. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The questions people ask
Is Foretaste an alternative to DocPreview?
Yes. Both find the documents a page links to and open them in your browser without saving them first. Foretaste also opens archives and the files inside them, spreadsheets, databases, datasets, media and code, and shows under every file how much of it was read.
Does DocPreview upload documents?
Its listing says previews “are rendered using secure, built-in browser technologies and no need to upload to other server”, and that the developer “will not collect or use your data”. Foretaste makes the same promise for its own tab: no file, file name or address reaches a Foretaste server.
Can Foretaste list every file on a page, like DocPreview’s side panel?
Yes. Find files on this page lists every file the page links to, grouped by kind, and it is free. Foretaste also puts a small button beside file links, so a single file opens without opening a list first.
Sources
Where each claim comes from
Read on 13 October 2026, and checked again by 13 April 2027. If a source has changed by then, this page changes with it.