questions about Open With

[ToddF]

I was trying to set up an external script (HTA) to run from the Open With menu and ran into a few blocks.

First, when I select a group of files on one side with different extensions, for example a DFM a DPR and a PAS file, most of the Open With programs go away, including my script, and sometimes the whole menu option goes away. How is BC determining what programs are "valid" for a particular extension, and how can I prevent this? They're all text files, my script can handle them, please allow it to. =)

Next, is there a better way to include multiple files on the command line for one utility than to use multiple %fs? Sometimes I only need one or two, sometimes I might need seven or eight. A code like %* to include all selected files would be useful.

What this is for: when I'm comparing files at work with those brought from home, before copying over the work files with changed versions, I want to send the affected work files to a "Revision" script which makes numbered copies of each file in a "store" folder (very low-budget VCS). BC is the logical place to do this from as it automatically identifies and makes it easy to select the group of files that need a revision copy made.

BC is my 3rd most used program, after V the File Viewer, and Delphi32.exe!!

Todd

[Chris]

Re: questions about Open With

Hi Todd,

This is based on number of files selected, not extension. Open With is limited to opening one or two files per program instance. The default settings only allow one external program instance, so once you select more than two files the user defined Open With settings will stop being listed.

To keep Open With enabled for more than two files, edit the Open With settings. Click Advanced and check "Multiple Instances". This will keep the command listed when multiple files are selected. The command will not be listed if you include any folders in your selection.

The current version of BC doesn't have a method to pass more than two files to a single program instance, so the above option will open another copy of the Open With program for each pair of files.

Valid methods to pass filenames:
One file: program.exe "%f"

Two files: program.exe "%f" "%f"

We are considering an option to pass multiple files to a single program instance for a future update to Beyond Compare.