path: root/doc/kcontrol/filetypes/index.docbook

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<title>File Associations</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>&Mike.McBride; &Mike.McBride.mail;</author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>

<date>2003-10-13</date>
<releaseinfo>3.2</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>files association</keyword>
<keyword>association</keyword>
</keywordset>
</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="file-assoc">
<title>File Associations</title>

<sect2 id="file-assoc-intro">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>One of the most convenient aspects of &tde;, is its ability to
automatically match a data file, with its application.  As an example,
when you click on your favorite &kword; document in &konqueror;, &tde;
automatically starts &kword;, and automatically loads that file into
&kword; so you can begin working on it.</para>

<para>In the example above, the &kword; Data file is
<emphasis>associated</emphasis> with &kword; (the application).  These
file associations are crucial to the functioning of &tde;.</para>

<para>When &tde; is installed, it automatically creates hundreds of file
associations to many of the most common data types. These initial
associations are based on the most commonly included software, and the
most common user preferences.</para>

<para>Unfortunately, &tde; can not:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>predict every possible combination of software and data files</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>prepare for file formats not yet invented</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>or predict everyone's favorite application for certain file formats</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>You can change your current file associations or add new file
associations using this module.</para>

<para>Each file association is recorded as a mime type.
&MIME; stands for <quote>Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions</quote>. It allows a computer to determine the type of file,
without opening and analyzing the format of each and every file.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="file-assoc-use">
<title>How to use this module</title>

<para>The file associations are organized into several categories, and
at a minimum you will have:</para>

<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>Application</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Audio</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Image</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Inode</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Message</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Multipart</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Print</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Text</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Video</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>

<para>All of the file associations are sorted into one of these
categories.</para>

<para>There is also an overview category <quote>All</quote>, which
displays all the file types in one list, without categorizing
them.</para>

<note><para>There is no functional difference between any of the
categories.  These categories are designed to help organize your file
associations, but they do not alter the associations in any way.
</para></note>

<para>The categories are listed in the box labeled <guilabel>Known
Types</guilabel>.</para>

<para>You can explore each of these categories, and see the file
associations contained within each one, by simply double-clicking on the
category name.  You will be presented with a list of the associated
mime-types under that category.</para>

<tip><para>You can also search for a particular &MIME; type by using the
search box. The search box is labeled <guilabel>Find filename
pattern</guilabel> and is located above the category list.</para>

<para>Simply type the first letter of the &MIME; type you are interested
in.  The categories are automatically expanded, and only the mime-types
that include that letter are displayed.</para>

<para>You can then enter a second character and the mime-types will be
further limited to mime types containing those two
characters.</para></tip>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-add">
<title>Adding a new mime type</title>

<para>If you want to add a new &MIME; type to your file associations,
you can click on the <guibutton>Add...</guibutton> button.  A small
dialog box will appear.  You select the category from the drop down
box, and type the &MIME; name in the blank labeled <guilabel>Type
name</guilabel>.  Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to add the new mime
type, or click <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> to not add any new
mime-types.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-del">
<title>Removing a mime type</title>

<para>If you want to remove a &MIME; type, simply select the &MIME;
type you want to delete by clicking once with the mouse on the &MIME;
type name.  Then click the button labeled
<guibutton>Remove</guibutton>.  The &MIME; type will be deleted
immediately.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-edit">
<title>Editing a mime types properties</title>

<para>Before you can edit a &MIME; types property, you must first
specify which &MIME; type.  Simply browse through the categories until
you find the &MIME; type you want to edit, then click once on it with
the mouse.</para>

<para>As soon as you have selected the &MIME; type, the current values of
the &MIME; type will appear in the module window.</para>

<para>You will notice the current values are split into two tabs:
<guilabel>General</guilabel> and <guilabel>Embedding</guilabel></para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>General</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>There are 4 properties for each &MIME; type in this tab:</para>

<orderedlist>
<listitem><para><guilabel>Mime Type Icon</guilabel> is the icon that
will be visible when using &konqueror; as a file
manager.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><guilabel>Filename Patterns</guilabel> is a search
pattern which &tde; will use to determine the &MIME; type.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><guilabel>Description</guilabel> is a short description
of the file type. This is for your benefit only.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><guilabel>Application Preference Order</guilabel>
determines which applications will be associated with the specified
&MIME; type.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Embedding Tab</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The Embedding tab allows you to determine if an file will be
viewed within a &konqueror; window, or by starting the
application.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-icon">
<title>Changing the Icon</title>

<para>To change the icon, simply click on the Icon button.  A dialog box
will appear, which will show you all available icons.  Simply click once
with the mouse on the icon of your choice, and click
<guibutton>OK</guibutton>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-pattern">
<title>Editing the mime-type patterns</title>

<para>The box labeled <guilabel>Filename Patterns</guilabel>, determines
what files will be included within this mime-type.</para>

<para>Usually, files are selected based on their suffix.  (Examples:
Files that end with <literal role="extension">.wav</literal> are sound
files, using the WAV format and files that end in <literal
role="extension">.c</literal> are program files written in C).</para>

<para>You should enter your filename mask in this combo box.</para>

<para>The asterisk (<literal>*</literal>) is a wildcard character that
will be used with nearly every mime type mask. A complete discussion
of wildcards is beyond the scope of this manual, but it is important
to understand that the asterisk (in this context),
<quote>matches</quote> any number of characters.  As an example:
<userinput>*.pdf</userinput> will match
<filename>Datafile.pdf</filename>, <filename>Graphics.pdf</filename>
and <filename>User.pdf</filename>, but not <filename>PDF</filename>,
<filename>Datafile.PDF</filename>, or
<filename>.pdf</filename>.</para>

<tip><para>It is very beneficial to have multiple masks.  One for lower
case, one for upper case, &etc;  This will help ensure that &tde; can
determine the file type more accurately.</para></tip>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-desc">
<title>Editing a mime types description.</title>

<para>You can type a short description of the &MIME; type in the text
box labeled <guilabel>Description</guilabel>.  This label is to help
you, it does not affect the function of the &MIME; type.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-app">
<title>Editing the application associations</title>

<para>There are four buttons (<guibutton>Move Up</guibutton>,
<guibutton>Move Down</guibutton>, <guibutton>Add</guibutton> and
<guibutton>Remove</guibutton>) and a combo box (which lists the
applications) which are used to configure the applications.</para>

<para>The combo box lists all of the applications associated with a
specific &MIME; type.  The list is in a specific order.  The top
application is the first application tried.  The next application down
the list is the second, etc.</para>

<note><para>What do you mean there is more than one application per
&MIME; type?  Why is this necessary?</para>

<para>We started out by saying that &tde; comes preconfigured with
hundreds of file associations.  The reality is, each system that &tde;
is installed on has a different selection of applications.  By
allowing multiple associations per &MIME; type, &tde; can continue to
operate when a certain application is not installed on the
system.</para>

<para>As an example:</para>
<para>For the &MIME; type <literal>pdf</literal>, there are two
applications associated with this file type.  The first program is
called <application>PS Viewer</application>.  If your system does not
have <application>PS Viewer</application> installed, then &tde;
automatically starts the second application <application>Adobe Acrobat
Reader</application>.  As you can see, this will help keep &tde; running
strong  as you add and subtract applications.</para></note>

<para>We have established that the order is important.  You can change
the order of the applications by clicking once with the mouse on the
application you want to move, and then clicking either <guibutton>Move
Up</guibutton> or <guibutton>Move Down</guibutton>.  This will shift
the currently selected application up or down the list of
applications. </para>

<para>You can add new applications to the list by clicking the button
labeled <guibutton>Add</guibutton>.  A dialog box will appear. Using the
dialog box, you can select the application you want to use for this mime
type.  Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> when you are done, and the
application will be added to the current list.</para>

<para>You can remove an application (thereby ensuring that the
application will never run with this &MIME; type by clicking once on the
name of the application, and clicking the <guibutton>Remove</guibutton>
button.</para>

<tip><para>It is a good idea to use the <guibutton>Move Up</guibutton>
and <guibutton>Move Down</guibutton> buttons to adjust the unwanted
application to a lower position in the list, rather than deleting the
application from the list entirely.  Once you have deleted an
application, if your preferred application should become compromised,
there will not be an application to view the data document.</para></tip>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-embedding">
<title>Embedding</title>
<para>By clicking on the <guilabel>Embedding</guilabel> tab, you are
presented with three radio buttons in the <guilabel>Left click
action</guilabel> group.  These determine how &konqueror; views the selected
&MIME; type:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>Show file in embedded viewer</term>
<listitem><para>If this is selected, the file will be shown <emphasis>within</emphasis> the &konqueror; window.</para></listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Show file in separate viewer</term>
<listitem><para>This will cause a separate window to be created when showing this mime-type.</para></listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Use group settings.</term>
<listitem><para>This will cause the mime-type to use the settings for the mime-type group.
(if you are editing an audio mime type, then the settings for the audio group are used).</para></listitem></varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>Below this is a listbox labeled <guilabel>Services Preference
Order</guilabel>.</para>

<para>When you are in &konqueror;, you can
<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse click, and a menu will with an
entry labeled <guimenu>Preview with...</guimenu> will appear.  This box
lists the applications that will appear, in the order they will
appear, under this menu.</para>

<para>You can use the <guibutton>Move Up</guibutton> and
<guibutton>Move Down</guibutton> buttons to change the order.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="file-assoc-use-done">
<title>Making changes permanent</title>

<para>When you are done making any changes to mime types, you can click
<guibutton>Apply</guibutton> to make your changes permanent, but keep
you in this module.</para>

</sect3>
</sect2>

</sect1>

</article>