If your firm has used Worldox for years, you likely sent internal documents using Worldox’s “file list” feature. Instead of attaching the actual document to an email, Worldox gave you the option to send the attachment in a Worldox file list (internal use only). This didn’t attach the file itself — it attached a small pointer file with a .wdl extension that told the recipient’s Worldox installation which document to open.
At the time, this was convenient. Recipients could click the attachment, and Worldox would pull up the document directly. No large attachments, no version confusion — just a link that worked as long as everyone was on Worldox.
The problem surfaces after migration. Once your firm has moved to NetDocuments and Worldox is no longer installed on your workstations, those old .wdl attachments sitting in Outlook become orphaned. There’s no application registered to open them, and double-clicking produces an error or a prompt to choose a program. The documents themselves aren’t gone — they were migrated to NetDocuments — but the pointer file has nowhere to point.
This is a common support call we receive from firms in the months after go-live: “We have emails with attachments that won’t open. They’re .wdl files. How do we find the documents?”
Here’s how to track down the original document in NetDocuments.
Step 1: Open the .wdl file in Notepad. Right-click the .wdl attachment in Outlook and choose Open. When prompted to select a program, choose Notepad (or any plain text editor). The .wdl file is not a binary — it’s a simple text file that contains metadata, including the original Worldox Document ID.
Step 2: Copy the Worldox Document ID. Inside Notepad, you’ll see a short block of text. Look for the Document ID — a numeric identifier that Worldox assigned to the original file. Copy that value.
Step 3: Search for the document in NetDocuments. Open NetDocuments and go to Advanced Search. Find the Worldox ID field and paste the Document ID you copied. Run the search.
If the document was migrated — and in most cases it was — NetDocuments will return it directly. You can then open it, share it properly, or save a link for future reference.
A note on completeness. Not every document referenced in an old .wdl file will appear in search results. If a document was excluded from the migration (for example, because it fell outside your date range cutoff, or was in a cabinet that wasn’t migrated), the Worldox ID won’t match anything in NetDocuments. In that case, the document may still exist in your Worldox archive or backup, and you’d need to retrieve it from there.
If you’re running into this frequently and need a systematic way to handle a large volume of old .wdl attachments, schedule a consultation with our team — we can help assess the scope and recommend the best path forward. You can also contact us here.