John Phillips

A:

By default, Windows associates all files of a specific type with a single application, but you can associate a single file with a particular program.

Windows uses file extensions-the three characters of the file name to the right of the last period-to associate a file type with a program. To see extensions in Windows Explorer, select ViewòFolder Options (or ViewòOptions), click the View tab, and uncheck Hide file extensions for the known file types.

To give a file a unique association, first give it a unique extension and then associate a program with it. Changing the name is easy. With the extensions showing in Windows Explorer, select the file, press <F2>, press either the left or the right arrow key to dehighlight the file name, and change the text after the period. For instance, if you want your 'this.jpg' file to come up in Photoshop, you might call it this.psj. After you hit <Enter>, click Yes.

To set up the new association, select ViewòFolder Options (or ViewòOptions), click the File Types tab, and click New Type. For 'Description of type', enter something comprehensible, such as Photoshop jpeg. For 'Associated extension', enter the extension you gave the file-psj. Don't worry about the Content Type field.

Click the New button below the Actions box to bring up the New Action dialog box. In the Action field, enter something descriptive, such as Photoshop. In the 'Application used to perform action' field, enter the name of the path to the program file. Better yet, click the Browse button, navigate to the program's folder, and double-click the appropriate program file. Click OK, Close, and Close again. That file, and any others you give the psj extension to, will now open in Photoshop.

Windows also allows you to associate more than one program with a file type, so you can choose to open a file in any of several applications when you launch it. In Windows Explorer, select ViewòFolder Options (or ViewòOptions), click the File Types tab, select the appropriate file type from the list ('JPEG Image' in this example), and then click the Edit button.

In the Edit File Type dialog box, click the New button. Follow the instructions given above for entering data into the New Action dialog box, and click OK. Back in the Edit File Type box, you'll see two actions listed. The one in bold is the default action. To change the default, select your choice and click Set Default. Click OK twice when you're done.

From now on, double-clicking a .jpg file will launch it in your default program. Right-clicking the file will let you choose from all the available options.

- Lincoln Spector