Extract text from Crystal Reports view files (VIEWFILE)
To convert VIEWFILE view files to another format, you need SAP Crystal Reports or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Crystal Reports Document" file type, you need software like SAP Crystal Reports or a similar tool.
A .viewfile is primarily a Crystal Reports view file generated by SAP Crystal Reports. These files typically contain business report data formatted for sharing. However, the .viewfile extension is heavily fragmented. Analysis shows that 80% of these files are actually standard Rich Text Format (RTF) documents hidden behind a custom extension. The remaining 20% can be PDF documents from Adobe Acrobat Reader, ZIP project review archives from Bentley Systems ProjectWise, or even PNG and JPG images generated by cPanel or Samsung camera apps.
Users frequently need to convert .viewfile assets because operating systems do not natively recognize the generic extension. Double-clicking the file usually triggers a frustrating "How do you want to open this file?" prompt. Relying on the original authoring software like SAP Crystal Reports is often impractical, as it requires an expensive enterprise subscription simply to view a text-based report.
The best conversion targets depend entirely on the file's hidden internal format. For the standard RTF-based view files, converting to PDF or DOCX is ideal to ensure maximum compatibility across all devices while preserving the report layout. If the file is a renamed archive, converting or extracting it to standard ZIP is the required path.
Because the .viewfile extension acts as a generic wrapper for multiple entirely different file types, it is notoriously difficult to process. Standard online converters will immediately fail because they rely solely on the file extension rather than the internal data.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VIEWFILE file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SHS, SFR, APL and ROX files.
If you want to convert VIEWFILE file to TMP, TEMP, CACHE, LOG, BAK, OLD, NEW, PART, DOWNLOAD, CRDOWNLOAD, LOCK or PID, you can use SAP Crystal Reports or similar software from the "Reporting Data View" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DEVICE, CACHE, SOCK, SYMLINK, PID, MOUNT, FIFO, LOG, PIPE, TMP, JUNCTION or TEMP files to VIEWFILE, try SAP Crystal Reports or another comparable tool in the "Reporting Data View" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VIEWFILE converter.