One of the most annoying bits of behavior in Web browsing (and I don’t know that it’s true outside of Windows, or outside of IE — I can only speak to my own experience) is document files that open up in the native application inside the browser.
There you are, viewing the darned thing, but if you want to save it to disk, or edit it and do stuff with it — well, there’s no menu bar or toolbar for the app, just the browser toolbar.
You can spoof the browser into letting you save it by making some sort of change and then going to another link, or clicking Back. The browser will note that the contents have changed, and let you save it if you want. But that’s still ugly. And you then still have to open it up from disk to further edit it.
Now I’ve learned you can get around this. No, really. I’ve been bitching and moaning about it whenever I’ve clicked on an Excel spreadsheet or Word doc on our Intranet for … well, years.
And now I know the secret solution.
You can tell Windows that you want document files opened in their native application, in its own window, rather than in the browser channeling the application. It’s relatively easy, too.
Start Windows Explorer (e.g., right click the [Start] button and select “Explore” from the menu). Go to Tools / Folder Options / File Types.
Scroll through the list of file types, and for each one you want to adjust:
- Click it once to highlight it.
- Click [Advanced]. This will bring up the “Edit File Type” window.
- Clear the check box next to “Browse in same window”
- Click [OK]
Hey presto! If you do this for the DOC filetype, then the default behavior when you click on a Doc file link on a web page will be to open up a Word window and view it there. You have full access to the toolbars, and can File Save it wherever you want.
Shiny!
And now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
Note: If you already knew about this, and have known for years, and all your friends and family know, even your old grandma who just got a computer … well, where were you when I needed you?