How RW apps open files - RealWorld forums

I have a few RW apps (paint, icon, cursor editors--), and they're really great. But, to be honest, I'm not a fan of how they open files. There are two problems I want to address, and hopefully they can be fixed in future versions of RW apps.

Note: I have the latest version of the three apps that I have.
I keep the icon editor on my flashdrive, and the other two are installed to my computer.

1. I have windows XP, and when I try to open an icon with RW icon editor WHICH I KEEP ON MY FLASHDRIVE, (right clicking, clicking open with and choosing the RW icon editor), the application opens, but the file is not loaded. This problem does not apply with RW Paint, but with the cursor editor, there is a different problem entirely. I click open with, the app isn't on the list so I search for it, in program files I open the cursor editor folder, then double click (I've also tried clicking and pressing open), it doesn't add the app to the list. This problem doesn't apply to the other RW apps that I have. Of course I can always open the app, and they all work fine if I open the file from the app itself, which is ok by me. But it might slow down people. However, there is still a problem with this, and that's problem two.

2. This problem I actually do mind, and I will explain it. When I open the RW app to open a file from there (I do this because of problem number 1), I click the open button on the side, as one does. Instead of opening the open file dialog, the norm for opening files in applications, it has its own programmed-in open interface. Which is fine, but the problem is, because of this, it doesn't work as I would expect, and it is a little hard to use, because of the following problem: I can't double click a shortcut within the open screen to automatically bring me to the directory it points to. Instead, I think it treats the shortcut as a file (a .lnk file I would expect), and I have to navigate to the directory I want the longer way, by clicking folder after folder. The one thing I do like is the "Favorite folder", (which I have set to my flashdrive, which I almost always keep plugged in to my computer), but sometimes that's not enough. There are sometimes many folders with things I want to edit, and I have shortcuts to them to cut down on time loss.

These are the two problems I found, hopefully I explained them in enough detail, The RW apps are great though, but as with any piece of software, there is always room to improve. And if these problems can be fixed that would be great.... Thank you.

The file associations are indeed a bit of a pain in Windows. The best advice I can give is to not establish the association from Explorer, but instead to do it from within the editors themselves. So, if you are having problems, try to remove the association from Explorer and then add it from the editor. That may help, but it is not a 100% solution as the whole issue is quite complex and the actions taken by Windows when a file is double clicked may depend on numerous registry entries and differs by Windows version.

In general, I also do not particularly like the way the Open window works. It has been customized, because the opening and saving of files is like many things in RW apps extendable by plug-ins and the standard window would not fit in the schema. You may have noticed, that you can open and save files to the "Tagged library" in addition to the file system. If I ever find enough time, I'll try to integrate some of the cloud services in a portable way (so that you would be able to work with files in your DropBox or Google Drive directly and on all computers). These will then appear in the Open/Save windows as new tabs.

That said, the problem with .lnk files is definitely important and I shall fix it asap.

Also, I usually open files by dragging and dropping them on the application window - not ideal, but possibly the best of bad ways.

Ok, what you are saying makes sense. Thanks for the advice.