OT: Opening files from Windows Explorer

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:42 am

If I right click on a single HTML file in Windows Explorer and select Open With WeBuilder, the file opens fine. If I select several files and then right click and select Open With WeBuilder, nothing happens; WeBuilder doesn't start and no files open.

Anyone know how to get several files opened at the same time from Windows Explorer? If I select several files and open with UltraEdit, then they all open in one go.

Thanks
Steve

Post by **chrisjlocke** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:01 pm

Dragging from Explorer into WeBuilder works. Not exactly what you were after, but better than nothing.

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:13 pm

chrisjlocke wrote:Dragging from Explorer into WeBuilder works. Not exactly what you were after, but better than nothing.

Having got over my initial "Ugh!" reaction, I can see how that would work and, as you say, it's better than nothing. Thanks.

Steve

Post by **chrisjlocke** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:03 pm

Another suggestion might be 'Tools' -> 'Load a list of files'. You would have had to 'Save a list of files' first though. Handy if you open the same batch of files ... otherwise its not!

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:50 pm

It's not that kind of situation. When I first build a site, I build the home page and first product page by hand. That gets me the initial layout and allows me to tweak the style.

Once I've done that, I switch to DreamWeaver to build the structure of the ste and generate templates, from which I build the bulk of the site.

Problem with Dreamweaver though is that, while it's a powerful tool, it's a bit of an overhead for the simpler changes so, after I get the structure built, I switch to hand editing the page content. Previously, I used UltraEdit and now I'm using WeBuilder.

Unfortunately, that means that the list of files I want to open will change regularly (hence the reason I spend most of my like in Windows Explorer).

I suppose the real problem is that I just can't get on with "visually" editing web pages. Hand cranking the html and css is so much easier.

Steve

Post by **chrisjlocke** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:55 pm

Found a solution to this.
WeBuilder has to be open and running first though.

For HTML files, add an association to WeBuilder - eg, 'Edit'. Then when you right click your files in Explorer, rather than 'Send to', select the 'Edit' option. Voila.

If WeBuilder isn't running at the time, you might end up with more than one running instance. If it is, then all files should plop into the same application.

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:03 pm

There must be something screwed up on my PC then. I set-up the "edit" association to open using WeBuilder and still nothing happens.

I looked at UltraEdit to see how it does it and that installs a specific shell extension, so I guess it's not as straight forward as a command association. It would be nice if Blumentals could do something like this but I can't see it as a big priority to them. In the mean time, I guess I'll stick with the simple work-around; I'll keep WeBuilder running and select multiple files from the file/open dialog.

It's not as simple as using Windows Explorer and it's a bit or a wrench doing things differently after so many years of working through Explorer, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Thanks for the help
Steve

Post by **chrisjlocke** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:52 pm

Weird that one file from Explorer works - that suggests the association is OK. I've just tried amending the %1 in the association to have quotes (that is usually a culprit) but that didn't make any difference.

OK, try this. I've written a VB prog which might help.
Download:
http://www.creapsoft.co.uk/files/weMuFiLa.exe

Create *another* association for HTM/L files to run the above file.
This will fire off the 'edit' association for each file.

This can be changed in the registry - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\Creapsoft\Webuilder Multiple File Launcher
Create a string value called 'action' with whatever action you need. I didn't have time to slap in an 'options' screen, but if it works ok for you, I'll add it.

Let me know how you get on.

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:55 pm

Thats for trying, but I got nowhere. If I fire off a single file, then it opens without problems. If I select five or six files, then I get the hour glass for a few seconds then the pointer returns, but no application starts or file opens.

My guess is that Windows Explorer is doing something strange here.

Steve

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:14 pm

Just for info;

I just wrote a small test program and associated it with html files. If I pick a single file, my test program gets called. If I select more than one file, the test program isn't even run.

Steve

Post by **chrisjlocke** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:41 pm

Strange. My program has a 'debug' option that will display a messagebox of the commandline, but it sounds like its not even getting executed, so unsure if that will help.
Go to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\Creapsoft\Webuilder Multiple File Launcher' and create a new string value called 'Debug' and set this to 'True'.

You could try FileMon or more likely RegMon from Microsoft to track whats being fired in the registry at the point of selecting these multiple files. Not heard of this problem before.

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:38 am

Ok, something strange must be happeneing here. I added your debug option and creaed a new "edit with editor" option that calls your program to open an html file. When I select a single file and use this option, it opens in WeBuilder. I do not get a message from you.

If I open several files, nothing happens.

Now, I can be sure that your program IS NOT being called, even though that's the association I set-up, because WeBuilder starts and edits the files but the "Edit" association is set to something else.

I think we should give up on this because we appear to be chasing around looking for a problem on my PC rather than a general problem. I can work round it, so it's no big deal. I'll try to track down the problem with Explorer through a WIndows forum to see if anyone there has any ideas.

Thanks for the help.
Steve

Post by **chrisjlocke** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:48 am

Feel free to post it on my own forum. Would be interested to investigate this further.

www.creapsoft.co.uk/forum

llbbl · Post by **llbbl** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:56 pm

Works for me:

If you set WeBuilder as the default extension for HTML or PHP, select multiple number of files, right click, edit.

The other suggestion would be to open the files from within WeBuilder by browsing to the folder.

sabarnett · Post by **sabarnett** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:10 pm

Glad it works for you. I gave up in the end. Nothing I did would get it to work with multiple files selected, so I now start WeBuilder by right clicking on one and then drag and drop the rest of the files I want opened.

I can only assume something wrong with my Windows set-up since no one else seems to have the problem. The only apps I have that work with multiple files are those that use shell extensions (such as UltraEdit).

Steve