Previews | Using 4Pane | FAQ

## Opening and Launching

#### Opening a file

If you double-click e.g. a text file (a file with the extension ".txt"), 4Pane tries to open it in your chosen text editor. Since 4Pane 3.0 there are two ways it can decide which editor to use:

- It can ask your system for the default application for that extension, and use that.
- The original, built-in method. When 4Pane first starts, it searches your system for standard applications like kwrite and gedit, and 'associates' these with text files. You can change these and add others at any time using the "Open With..." dialog.

By default it tries the first way first, then the second, but this can be configured here. If you try to open a file that isn't recognised, the "Open With..." dialog will automatically open.
Another way to open a file is from the context menu, and this is useful if there is more than one application available to open a particular type of file. If you right-click such a file, one of the items in the resulting context menu will be "Open with...". Selecting this produces a submenu containing the known applications appropriate to the file; beneath these will be the option "Other" which again leads to the "Open With..." dialog.
If you bring up a context menu for a file that 4Pane doesn't know how to open, it will still contain "Open with...", but this time not as a submenu. Selecting it will once again produce the "Open With..." dialog.

#### Launching an Executable file

An executable file is an application or a script that your computer can run. If you double-click such a file in 4Pane it will be launched (assuming that you have the right permissions etc).
However you might sometimes want an executable script to be opened in an editor instead of running. The easiest way to do so is to drag it onto an Editor icon, but an alternative is to double-click the file while pressing the Ctrl key. 4Pane will then treat it as though it were not executable, and try to open it.