File Associations in 2012.12

[Howard]

Now using my new installation, but I have to reset all the file associations and it doesn't seem to be  as easy as with earlier versions

E.g. Someone has sent me a .docx file which I want to open in open office.  When right click and select "Open With" instead of a list of possible applications I get a window with a blank screen under the "installed application" tab which won't accept any entries and a request for a custom command line from the other tab.

This is not helpful!  Why don't I get a menu list as in the earlier version?  (Which I have to go back to as it's an important document.)

[Howard]

Partly solved now.  I opened the .docx file from within OpenOffice and after that OOo appears in the list as an option when I right click, but it still doesn't go to OOo with a left click.

[yonnie]

Have you tried:  Right click on the file and go to the properties option, tell it to open with your desired application?

[Howard]

Thanks yonnie, but that only gave me the same options as in the menu.

However, there must have been some sort of glitch in my system, as today, instead of an empty window under "installed application", I am now getting the full menu as I expected.  (I've not changed the installation). On a couple of occasions the pop-up full menu you get when clicking on the PC button also disappeared - all I got was Run and Logout.  It came back on a reboot.  Something funny is going on, if I can reproduce it reliably I'll report back.

[Waldo22]

The last part about "Logout and Run" was discussed in a couple of other threads.  If you click on "Run" and then "Cancel", the menu will be restored.  Seems simpler than a reboot.  Hope this helps.

[Howard]

Thanks, I'll try to remember that.

One thing I forgot to mention is that when I did a wider search (google) on "PCManFM file associations problem" I found a lot of posts about this problem - mostly on Ubuntu's forums.

[Howard]

In my last posting I mentioned "another distro" by name (the one beginning with U).  It seems to have been automatically edited out making rather little sense of my comment.  Isn't this a bit too touchy?  We all know there are others out there and we've chosen PCLinuxOS.