Could add an auto-skip option for the non-native Office plugin when the native plugin is available?

[ZUIcat]

Using QuickLook as a portable app across machines with/without Office. Native plugin provides superior quality, but non-native QuickLook.Plugin.OfficeViewer still intercepts previews when native is available. Both plugins are installed to ensure fallback (no Office) + best quality (with Office), but currently require manual toggling.

Add an option to the non-native plugin to auto-detect if native plugin can handle the file; if yes, skip and let native take over for better quality.

Manual enable/disable via settings or scripts – both inconvenient.

Portable QuickLook usage across varying environments; applies to non-native plugin only.

[rabelux]

The native plugin is deprecated, so I guess it's not worth the effort: Available-Plugins
I suggest you use the non-native version only.

[emako]

@rabelux The reason for deprecation is that the new version of QuickLook has built-in it.

[emako]

There is indeed a V5 version planned for each plugin to support disabling.

[ZUIcat]

There is indeed a V5 version planned for each plugin to support disabling.

Thank you for your response. To avoid any misunderstanding, let me clarify: this is not about adding a config to disable a plugin globally (since this is a portable tool and the same files travels across machines). Instead, it's about adding a skip function specifically for the Office plugin — when detects that the native plugin can handle the file, non-native plugin reports as unavailable and simply steps aside.

[emako]

If only implementing a separate disable does not meet your needs, it is recommended that you develop a separate plugin (for example, called OfficeSwitch), which provides higher priority detection and routing to other plugins you specify to render office files.

[ZUIcat]

If only implementing a separate disable does not meet your needs, it is recommended that you develop a separate plugin (for example, called OfficeSwitch), which provides higher priority detection and routing to other plugins you specify to render office files.

That's a fair point. My initial thought was that this doesn't seem like a special requirement — a simple priority rule between native and non-native plugins feels quite natural, perhaps something like a configuration check in CanHandle.

But if you feel this kind of logic shouldn't live in individual plugins and should instead be handled by an extension priority mechanism, then I may have to think other approaches.

[emako]

Fallback is indeed a mechanism worth considering, but since plug-ins exist independently, the Fallback layer can only be implemented in QuickLook itself.

This will involve many priority considerations, so it cannot be implemented so quickly.

In the short term, it is recommended to develop an independent OfficeSwitch plug-in to implement it.

[ZUIcat]

Thank you for your reply. I understand now. I'll try implementing a plugin to meet my needs later. Feel free to close this issue based on the project's roadmap.