CTRL - Enter or CTRL - doubleclick file in Explorer opens file in predefined app

[ovehal]

What I often do is open many different files as text files(htm, vbs, log...) while keeping their primary association.

So what I do now is navigate to the file press the menu button(or right click) and arrow down in the context menu to "open text-file"

How I wish it would be:

Navigate the to the file, hold down CTRL and press enter/doubleclick the file to open it in alternate editor/application.
Would be nice to be able to specify a default second editor and a second editor for specific file extentions.

Example: Default second editor is set to notepad.exe, for .htm second editor is dreamweaver(primary is frontpage)
=> CTRL - doubleclick on .log, .vbs, .wsh or files with no extention opens file in notepad, while CTRL-doubleclick on .htm file opens the file in dreamweaver.

Hope someone with knowledge in shellextentions looks upon this as a snack:-)

Best regards
Ove B-)

[mouser]

i commonly open files in text editor like you,
i solve it by having buttons on my file explorer that i can drop files onto; this is one of the main reasons to use a 3rd party file explorer.

all of them will do this, powerdesk, directory opus, etc.

[nudone]

well i never. i didn't know you could do that with directory opus - i've been cursing for years, thinking that it's a feature that ought to be included but no one has ever done it (with any explorer). i suppose when you don't read the manual you never learn all the features.

anyway, regards to the above problem - there is a little util that you can get that intercepts your double click on an file action.

instead of opening the associated program it brings up a little menu with a list of several programs you've associated with that file type so you can then click on the program you would prefer to use in that particular instance.

unfortunately i can't remember the name of it - i thought it a very clever idea but i think it was a bit buggy so gave up on it (hence i can't recall it's name).

i'm sure someone around here will know what it is.

as a side thought: does anyone know if a similar thing coule be made with 'autoit' - any thoughts dragonrider?

[Dragonrider]

Ahh...  The fame, or is that infamy? 

Let me get this straight:

1. When you right click, or double-click on a file in windoze explorer, you want a menu to appear that shows a list
     of programs that you can bring up the file in.
2. You also want to be able to add, delete, or edit this list at any time.

Is this correct?  If so, then yes, I think this could be done in AutoIt except for possibly the double-click part inside of windoze explorer.  I don't know how this could be done, but that doesn't mean it can't.

On the other hand.  I've been looking for a small utility that I got awhile ago that I can't seem to find the ".zip" of now.  I use it all the time.  You got me looking for it last night when I read this message.  It's a shell extension called "Open With".  It essentially does exactly what you want.  When you right click on a file & want to open it in another program other than the default association & it's not already defined.  You open it with the normal "Open With" entry, check the "Always use this program to open these files" box & then choose the program you want.  The next time you want to open that file with an alternate program, go to the menu item (that has sub-menu items) called "Open With..." & look in the sub-menus.  It will have a list that contains your previous program selection.  If you want a different program, do what was described above & the next time both programs will be in the sub-menu.  The only downside I see for this is that you are changing default file associations.

Regards
Dragonrider

[nudone]

hmm, i see what you mean. i never thought about the actual bit about double clicking on a file being the problem, i.e. autoit would be acting as the associated program for that file type - i can imagine this being difficult. but hey, i wouldn't have a clue where autoit is concerned.

the thing you are describing, dragonrider, with the right click on a file and 'open with', etc, etc. is part of windows xp as standard i think.

if it isn't then i'll have to work out where i got it from but i seem to think it's been there since day one of installation. if it wasn't then maybe it was simply ms tweakui and if not that then i would have put it on whilst running autopatcherxp.

hehe, just thought i better check the above by running the old vmware virtual clean installation of windows xp - it does appear to be part of the operating system from day one.

[Dragonrider]

Then is it also part of Win2K as well?  Since I have Win2K, not WinXP.

Regards
Dragonrider

[nudone]

it doesn't appear to be part of win2k as standard so unless you find the the name of the program you've lost or it's zip file then you won't have much joy.

could it be that you are looking for this...

OpenExpert www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html (free for personal use).

[Dragonrider]

Bingo!  That's the program I was looking for.  I even saw that name several times on my HD while looking for "Open With" but I dismissed it without looking at the webpage I'd saved describing it.  That's what I get for ASS-U-Me'ing something & not checking it out.  OpenExpert IS the program I was describing.

Thanks nudone!

Regards
Dragonrider

[ovehal]

Not quite what I'm looking for. I've already got a entry on the right click menu that let me open any file as a text file: "Open txt-file". I can post a .reg file for the entry if you like....
The problem with that metod is that you can't spesify the order in the menu. So I have to press menu button(I've got anti mouse mania...) and use arrow down 2-5 times to find the Open txt-file menu item. Just hitting CTRL - Enter would be so much sleeker.

Ove B-)