Opening random windows files?

November 13, 2006 7:35 AM

What's the best way to view/edit text files in Windows that have a random varying file extension?
posted by smackfu to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

I leave a shortcut to Emacs on my Quick Launch bar, and drag and drop any files on the icon.
posted by grouse at 7:41 AM on November 13, 2006

righ click, then "open with" or "send to" Notepad, tell it "okay" if Windows complains about formatting.

Edit and save as normal. I find this especially useful when writing HTML pages by hand and viewing IM logs (".log," yeah...).
posted by whatzit at 7:48 AM on November 13, 2006

Any decent text editor will let you deal with random file extensions. I use Vim and when you install the windows version, you get "Edit file with Vim" in the right-click menu for every file.

But that's not much help if you don't like vi.
posted by GuyZero at 7:55 AM on November 13, 2006

Response by poster: Is there some way to create that "Edit with xxx" right-click option for my own editor of choice?
posted by smackfu at 8:06 AM on November 13, 2006

Best answer: although it is not exactly the same as adding edit you can add anything you want to the send to window pretty easily. check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310270 for detailed instructions
posted by phil at 8:09 AM on November 13, 2006

Ditto to what Guyzero said. If you install a good Windows text-editor (my fave is UltraEdit http://ultraedit.com), it will add a choice to the menu you get when right-clicking any file in File Explorer.

So I can open ANY file this way.

(just say no to Notepad...)
posted by Artful Codger at 9:24 AM on November 13, 2006

Something that works with many editors is to open the editor and drag the file straight into the editor window - no need to right click at all.
posted by Lanark at 11:18 AM on November 13, 2006

smackfu, you can create your own "Edit with xxx" menu items, provided the editor you want to use has a command-line optin for opening files, and you're happy to fiddle with the registry a bit. (Obviously, standard disclaimers of "Always backup your registry before changing it", and "Don't mess with the registry if you're not comfortable doing it" still apply.)

A quick Google search found this brief description of the process:
http://www.ghacks.net/2006/07/21/how-to-create-new-context-menu-options/

Which looks like what I remember doing when I did the same.
posted by insipidia at 4:54 PM on November 14, 2006

i really like freeCommander which is a free dual-pane windows explorer replacement. one nice feature is the ability to open any file with the default text editor by hitting F4.

the beta version (you have to donate about $14 to get it) has a great quick view feature that displays any file you click on in the opposite pane. i know some other explorer replacement programs have a similar quick view as well, but this wouldn't let you edit. it's cool to see what zip files look like in text though...
posted by jacobsee at 4:20 PM on November 16, 2006

Thanks insipidia! Two extra tips to go with that:

1. You might need to put quotation marks around %1 if you open files that have spaces.
2. You can make a keyboard accelerator by putting & before the menu description, i.e. naming the key "Open with &Emacs..." means I can press Shift+F10, E to open any file with Emacs now.

posted by grouse at 4:44 PM on November 16, 2006

grouse: Two excellent points, thanks.

(I didn't even mention quotation marks, because they always give me grief, and I just keep adding them to a command line until it works. :) )
posted by insipidia at 6:32 PM on November 19, 2006