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Files with extensions of docx, xlsx, txt, mht, etc. can not be displayed on the preview pane. The OS is W7. What could be wrong?

Perhaps you have the 'preview pane' turned off. A quick Google search will get you steps on how to turn it on.

If it is just certain extensions, it's possible the preview handlers got unregistered. This can happen for a variety of reasons, usually because some other software grabbed the entry (either when it was installed or run), though it's possible MS does this automatically if one of the office previewer apps crashes under certain circumstances (if something's wrong with Office such that it is crashing while rendering a preview it may take down Explorer as well, so it's actually good practice to disable yourself if you detect that happening, lest you crash explorer every time it browses a directory containing those files). You can run regedit and see what's registered for, say .docx files in:It should look something like

Under ShellEx there should be an entry with {84F66100-FF7C-4fb4-B0C0-02CD7FB668FE} which is the Class ID (GUID) for the Word Previewer.

If you don't see that, definitely don't go editing the registry directly. Your best action would be to do a repair install of Office (which is the TL;DR version of this comment).

Yes, it is just certain extensions. It does not happen for image files such as jpeg, mp4, etc.
This problem is with my relative's machine and I have not had a chance to review the registry. But the suggestion is not necessarily clear to me as to under what circumstance I can directly edit the registry and in what way. Clarification is appreciated.

Sorry, let me be perfectly clear: DON'T EDIT THE REGISTRY. It's a good way to make things worse, and unless you really really know what you're doing it's nor worth the risk. I was just suggesting you look to see if something else was grabbing the association.

But never mind that, let's back up: what version of Office are we dealing with? If it's Office 2010, you can do a repair though add/change programs in the control panel. If it's Office 2007 or an earlier version, see here.

If there is possibly a registry trick to solve the problem, I would rather try that since I am quite comfortable editing registry. But if it is too much for you to put it in words for posting then never mind. By the way the link in the post appears incorrect.