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9. Opening a file into a specific program
Default programs
Contextual menu
Click and drag
Default programs
In Windows, a file of a given type will open by default into a particular program. You can tell which program it wants to open into (the default program) by looking at its icon.
However, a number of different programs might be able to work with a given file. The default program might not be the one you want to work in.
For example, a .jpg file might open in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer by default but you want to work with it in Photoshop instead. Or an .html file might open in a browser by default but you want to work on the code in Notebook, or in Dreamweaver.
Exercise
- Open Mozilla Firefox.
- We're going to save the current Web page as a file on our own computers. Click on the File menu.
- Select Save Page As... from the File menu.
- On the left of the window that pops up (called the dialog box) is five location icons. Click on the icon for Desktop.
- Click Save.
- Go to the desktop.
- Double-click on the .html file. It is probably called default.htm.
- What program opens?
- Close that program. Close Firefox too if it is still open.
A dialog box is something you'll find all over Windows. There are New, Save, Open and all kinds of other dialog boxes. These boxes let you tell Windows or a program specifically what you want.
Contextual menu
If the icon next to a file if not for the program you want, here's how to open the file into another program:
- Locate the file in Windows Explorer.
- Right-click on the file once to show the contextual menu.
- Choose Open With.
- If you see the program you want, select it from the list with a left-click.
- If you don't see the program you want, select Choose Program...
- If you see the program you want in that list, double-click on it. If not, click on Browse...
- In the Open With... dialog box that appears, click on Desktop on the left.
- Navigate to the program you want and double-click on it.
Exercise
- Locate the .html file again on the desktop.
- Open the .html file using Notepad.
- Close Notepad.
Click and drag
Now that you are comfortable arranging your windows on your screen, you can use click and drag:
- Open the program first.
- Go back to the desktop.
- Navigate to the file you want.
- Click and drag the file's icon over to the working space of the program.
Exercise
- Open Dreamweaver MX 2004. If there is a start page, close it.
- Restore Down the window and resize it so you can see the .html file on the desktop again.
- Click and drag the icon for the .html file directly into the gray central (working) area of Dreamweaver.
Another method of opening files into a specific program will be shown in 11. Opening files in a program.
