"Open With" questions

[maurice]

Why do we not have "Associated Application" as an option for "Open With" option? Without this I have to create new "open with" app entries for all apps that I might want to use this way...or navigate thru ...>Explorer > Open With...which is quite a bit further than before.

I had to create an "Open With" app before the option would show up in the Actions menu and the Context menu. This would probably not be a problem with the old default option "Associated App".

Also, in BC2, in a FOLDER compare window, I can right-click in the center column...selecting both the left and right side files, select open with associated application...and the app opens both files!! I'm working with .PDFs a lot, so it is very handy sometimes to send both to Acrobat. And that worked OOTB in BC2!!

[Chris]

"Associated Application" was replaced by the Explorer menu in BC3.

To open a PDF file in BC3 Beta, right click on a file in the Folder View. Select Explorer > Open to open the file in the associated application (usually Adobe Acrobat Reader).

[maurice]

How about moving the "Open With" and "Explorer" options to the top of the context menu?

Also, when I add %f to the path, Acrobat says it can't find the file. When I add "%f %f", the Open with option is added to the folder-view context menu when both sides are selected (ie click in middle column). Path I'm using in "Open With" Applications:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" %f %f

Single side "Open With" has no problem opening in Acrobat is no "%f" present.

[Chris]

We originally had the "Explorer" option listed near the top of the context menu when it first appeared in Beyond Compare 2. On some systems with many shell extensions installed, it takes a long time to list the Explorer menu. We moved it to the bottom of the list in the current BC2 and in BC3 to make it less likely for a user to accidentally mouse over the menu and hit a possible slowdown generating the menu.

[Chris]

For Open With, BC doesn't place quotes around file paths that contain spaces. Adding quotes around %f should help.

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" "%f" "%f"

[markf_2748]

I have been using BC2 daily for over 2 years and I agree completely with Maurice. "Open With > Associated App" is very useful and should remain as a visible option at the top of the Folder View RMB context menu. In the BC3 beta it is too far away at the bottom of the menu inside Explorer. Once inside Explorer context menu, you have to further traverse to the middle or top of that menu. Too much travel for something I use many times a day.

If you insist on hiding away the "Associated App" option inside Explorer, then at least place "Open With" at the top of the context menu so that my Tools > Options > Open With customization is at the top.

I also find that right clicking in the center column, as Maurice mentions, is a really useful feature. It is a great way to open up two Explorer windows with a single click so that files can be quickly manipulated from folders within Explorer. Also good for quickly opening two files in their native application. Sad to see this Open With feature disappear in BC3 beta.

I also made a suggestion in the BC2 Beyond Help forum on Sept. 1, 2006, saying it would be useful if there was an option to have double clicking on a file name open that file in its associated app instead of the file compare window.

Strong suggestions for a great product.

[markf_2748]

One observation: the RMB context menu automatically adjusts itself to be either "drop down" or "fly up", depending on its length and current location of the mouse pointer on the screen. If it does not fit as a drop down, then it becomes a fly up, in which case the bottom of the menu is the shortest travel distance from the mouse! Same behavior holds for the BC3 Actions submenu. Probably, for most users most of the time these menus appear as drop down.

BTW, I have never experienced (on Win XP) the alleged issue with the Explorer menu inadvertently opening up and delaying things. As long as I run the mouse past the Explorer option at a reasonable speed then it does not open up at all.

So while I would like to see Open With at the top, IMHO the more important Folder Compare issues are to (1) restore Assoc App to Open With, (2) restore Open With to the context menu when clicking in the center column with BC2 functionality of opening both sides, and (3) provide Option to automatically open with Assoc App when a file is double clicked, bypassing the menus altogether (some of us use the file compare feature rarely, but use file/folder open all the time).

BTW, thanks for adding the folder icon with two up arrows for Up One Level On Both Sides. That is a feature which I (and perhaps others) requested some time ago. Nice to see it.

[Erik]

One observation: the RMB context menu automatically adjusts itself to be either "drop down" or "fly up", depending on its length and current location of the mouse pointer on the screen. If it does not fit as a drop down, then it becomes a fly up, in which case the bottom of the menu is the shortest travel distance from the mouse! Same behavior holds for the BC3 Actions submenu. Probably, for most users most of the time these menus appear as drop down.
This is standard Windows behavior. It's not something special we're doing.

BTW, I have never experienced (on Win XP) the alleged issue with the Explorer menu inadvertently opening up and delaying things. As long as I run the mouse past the Explorer option at a reasonable speed then it does not open up at all.
The slowup depends on which applications you have installed that add to Explorer's right click menu. It may not be an issue for you but it definitely is for others.

[penguin22]

I started a thread similar to this a while back in the Cirrus days, but felt it be worthwhile to chime in again. I can understand the decision to remove the Open With for redundancy purposed, but also have used the Open With>Associated Application and Open With>Explore options very often, the later when selecting two folders.

Moving the Explorer to the bottom is a good idea for the Shell Extension slowdown reason, but I agree that it would be very helpful to move Open With back to the top, even if the options have to be manually recreated.

Also, there had been mention of having the help show some common examples. The Open With>Explore now shows on individual files as well as folders, I believe in BC2 that this was not the case. And the Open With>Associated Application would make a great second example if you really decide to keep them out.

[markf_2748]

Folder View FYI: the following customization (which is consistent with RMB Explore in Windows start) works on files in BC3 beta:

Tools > Options... > Open With
Description: Explore
Command Line: explorer.exe /n,/e,/select, "%f"

Check "Accepts files" and/or "Accepts folders" for individual entries to configure their Open With visibility.

(Also see Lutz (http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=1607&postcount=8) )

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In BC2, I find there is a built-in Open With > Explore for folders but not for files, so there I use the following customization for files (since this also shows up for folders in BC2 I give it a unique name):

Description: MyExplore
Command Line: explorer.exe /n,/e,/select, "%f"

[JohnFLand]

In BC2, I assigned "Ctrl-Enter" to mean "open with associated application"; how do I achieve the same result in BC3?

John Land

[JohnFLand]

OK, workarounds for the apparent inability of BC3 to run a file with the associated application:

1) Write a macro (I uses Macro Express 3) to run Alt-A, X, O. Causes a blank menu to momentarily popup.

2) In the BC3 "Open With" dialoga, create an item with this Command Line: cmd /c @start "" "%f"

Causes a black command window to momentarily popup.

[maurice]

#2 works great! Thanks. Is there anyway for this to pass both left and right side file names when both left and right are selected? Otherwise, with a keyboard shortcut, I have to open each side separately. definitely better than current right-click option!

The only way I could open both sides is to pass "%f" "%f" directly to the application...as my earlier question was answered:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" "%f" "%f"
(plus a keyboard shortcut also, of course).

[JohnFLand]

I suspect you'd have to write a batch file that uses a FOR loop to pass each %f input parameter to the START command.

[Chris]

Maurice,

To open each side in a separate instance of the program, use a single %f in the command line. Then click the Advanced button in the Open With configuration and check "Multiple instances".

[Lutz]

Hello!

I think it's been posted before but I suggest the ability to open all selected files in ONE instance of a program, i. e. with %s in the command line (BC3 then passes all selected files with full path info to the external program).

The switch 'Multiple instances' (should be renamed to 'Multiple selection') may be set automatically and greyed out and the input field 'Working directory' may be respected, if path info is to be passed or not (something like 'Folder structure' in the 'Copy To Folder'-dialog) in this case.

Or:
Perhaps it's better to add an checkbox 'Multiple selection' which handles the appearance of an open with-entry to separate this from 'Multiple instances' which handles if the selection shoud be passed to one or multiple instances of a program.

Greetings Lutz

[B2C]

We originally had the "Explorer" option listed near the top of the context menu when it first appeared in Beyond Compare 2. On some systems with many shell extensions installed, it takes a long time to list the Explorer menu. We moved it to the bottom of the list in the current BC2 and in BC3 to make it less likely for a user to accidentally mouse over the menu and hit a possible slowdown generating the menu.

I feel ACDSee's solution is better. In ACDSee, Ctrl-right-clicking (or Shift-right-clicking) gives the Explorer context menu independently. Thus, the Explorer menu appears only when one needs it.
I think BC can accept this as an option.

[Craig]

I feel ACDSee's solution is better.

I haven't used ACDSee. Does the Explorer menu appear as a submenu when you hold Ctrl or replace the existing popup menu? If it's the latter, they didn't do it because it's a better interface, they did it because it's much easier to implement. The code to merge the Explorer menu as a submenu took a lot of research and testing to get right. Showing the Explorer menu on its own, on the other hand, is positively trivial. I wouldn't be surprised at all that a company would go that route if they didn't want to spend a lot of time on it.

Either way, I don't think that having to hold down a key when you click to get a different menu is very discoverable, so I can't agree that it's a better interface.

[RunnerBiker]

If you change the access to the Explorer sub menu, Please do not get rid of the ability to get there with the keyboard.

I use the keyboard Alt+A X to access the explorer functions.

[Bill D]

I too would like a quicker way to open a file in its associated app. I use this feature regularly. In BC3 "Open" in the Explorer menu is buried too deep.

I took maurice's and markf_2748's great suggestion on modifying the "Open With" command one step further by making shortcuts for my most frequently used apps. Here is how I configured my BC3:

Tools > Options... > Open With

Description: MyExplore Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+O
Command Line: explorer.exe /n,/e,/select, "%f"

Description: MyExcel Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+E
Command Line: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE

Description: MyWord Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+W
Command Line: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE

Description: MyPwrPnt Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+P
Command Line: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\POWERPNT.EXE

Description: MyPDF Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+A
Command Line: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe

Now I can easily open most of the files that I can use frequently from BC with a single key sequence.

While this workaround serves my needs, I think that adding "Open with associated application" functionality via several methods would improve an already awesome piece of software.

Another nice to have is markf_2748's request to include an option to enable double clicking on a file name open that file in its associated app instead of in the file compare window.

The speed of BC3 and the Portable Install are what make me really love this piece of software. I eagerly await updates!

[kschmidt1351]

This is an old thread, but I was looking for a solution, because I really miss Open With > Associated App, too.

On my system, the Explore submenu was incredibly slow, so I am glad that BC3 moved it to the bottom.

I also agree that Open With should be near the top.

I found a way to add Associated App to the Open With menu...at least for XP. I use "cmd /c @start "Bogus Title" "%f".

I attached a screen shot in case that is more clear.

Hope this helps.

[Aaron]

Thanks for the suggestion. This KB Article (formed from the comments on this post and others) may be useful:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_openwithapp.php