Maggie's Farm

 
 
(continue reading)
 

Let's start at the beginning.

Every file on the computer that's used by people (as referred to system files) is associated with some program by way of its file extension.  That's the program that runs when you double-click on the icon.  An ".htm" file extension opens the browser, a ".doc" file extension opens the word processing program.

Note:  If you aren't seeing file extensions on your computer, open any window, go to the Tools menu, 'Folder Options', click on the 'View' tab and un-check "Do not show hidden files and folders."

The trouble arises as with our Notepad file, because Notepad doesn't have a built-in spell-checker.  So, the normal routine would be to fire up something like MS Word and then painstakingly browse to the file.

The very thought makes me recoil in horror.

 
If you'll click on any icon with the right mouse button, you'll see a 'Send To' entry in the menu.  Using the SendTo feature, you can quickly 'send' a Notepad or Wordpad file to MS Word with this feature, rather than having to browse to it in the requester.

 
Here are some possible uses:

• Got a file you want to move to a certain folder? Click on the file, pull the menu down and 'send' it to the appropriate folder
     


• 'Send' sound files and songs to your audio editor or player
   


• 'Send' pictures to editors and viewers
   


• 'Send' BAT and HTML files to Notepad or Wordpad for editing
   


• 'Send' raw video files like VOBs to a movie player like PowerDVD
   


• 'Send' pics and videos to a program like MediaInfo to obtain all the technical specs of the file
   


• 'Send' image files like BIN and ISO files to ISO Buster for extracting
   


• Programmers: 'Send' files to your hex editor of choice

 
Setting up the SendTo feature is fairly easy.  It's just a matter of dragging the shortcut icons of the programs you want to 'send' files to over to the SendTo folder.

 
To set up the SendTo feature:

• Open 'My Computer', C Drive, 'Documents & Settings', your <login name> folder, then the "SendTo" folder.  If you don't see it, go to the window's Tools Menu, 'Folder Options', 'View' tab, check the 'Show hidden files..." gadget.
   


• Delete everything in the Sendto folder except any icons you want to use with the SendTo feature.
   


• Go to the Start Menu, find the icon of the program you want to 'send' files to, hold down the Ctrl key and d-r-a-g the icon over to the SendTo folder.  Drag any other icons you might want, such as Notepad, Wordpad, WinRar, ISO Buster, movie players, audio editors, whatever.  Don't forget to hold down the Ctrl key or you'll be moving them, not copying them.
   


• Close the SendTo folder (or hit the 'Back' button if you're using the single-window system) so you're back in the <user name> folder.  Highlight the icon to the SendTo folder with the right mouse button and 'Create Shortcut'.  Grab the shortcut icon and d-r-a-g it over to the Start Menu and drop it in.  That'll allow you to easily open the SendTo folder in the future.

 
Note: A very few programs, such as MS Word, won't work with a Start Menu shortcut icon.  You have to dig up the actual program and make a fresh shortcut icon of the main program, then drag that shortcut icon over to the SendTo folder.  To find out where the real program is, right-click on the Start Menu icon, open its 'Properties' and look in the 'Target' box.

 
At the bottom of the SendTo drop-down menu you'll see entries for any drives you have for writeable media, like Drive A (floppy disk), ROM burners or smart cards.  These entries unfortunately can't be removed.  Unfortunately, because you only get so many entries before the drop-down menu doubles up into two columns, making it harder to use.  So every slot is valuable.

Also, some programs will put a shortcut icon in the SendTo folder when they're installed, so if suddenly the menu seems longer than it should be (much less suddenly going into double-column mode), look for the interloper and delete it.
 

To alphabetize the SendTo entries in the drop-down menu is kinda goofy, but this is the way it's gotta be done.

First, create and open a new folder somewhere.  Now open the SendTo folder, highlight all of the icons with Ctrl-A and move them over to the new folder.  From the View Menu, 'Arrange icons by', 'Name'.

Now drag them back to the SendTo folder in alphabetical order.  It's lame, but at least it works.

 
I should also mention a similar Windows feature called 'Open With', also on the right mouse button menu.  It's basically the same thing except you can't organize the entries.  Once you add a program to the 'Open With' menu, it's there forever.  You're also can't rename them so you're stuck with whatever dumb name the programmer gave the program.  For example, rather than a tidy "VirtualDub" for the entry, you get "VirtualDub video processing tool", which is kind of clunky.  The SendTo feature is really the better deal.

Also on the subject, there are programs out there like OpenExpert which take the whole 'send to' genre to a whole new level, so if you're dealing with scads of different types of files & editors/players, that might be the way to go.