Drag to shortcut to open?

[kcnychief]

If I have, say a .jpg, and I drag it over my MS Paint Shortcut, it opens in Paint. If I drag a .DOC over my MS Word Shortcut, it won't open. If I drag that same document over the WinWord.exe within the c:\program files\microsoft office\office 11\, it works.

Is there a way I can change that?

I know I could double-click, or right-click and open with, but I was just wondering....

EDIT: Just to add, I'm using Office 2003 Pro, and I have tested this feature with Word and Excel, neither works.

 

[Mastershakes]

Winword, is she in the system path? I suspect I'm barking up the right tree, not sure though...

 

[kcnychief]

winword.exe is located here:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11

 

[Mastershakes]

You know what's odd KC? I went into Start Programs, right clicked Microsoft Word and made a shortie on the desktop.

When I drag a .doc over the shortcut and drop it, it opens Word.

NOTE: There is Office 2000 installed on this work PC.

 

[American Zombie]

Look at the target line of the shortcut you have now as it will just have the name of the application instead of a target path.

You could delete current shortcut then create a new shortcut with winword.exe as the target and all will be good to go.

 

[Mastershakes]

I see what you are saying American Z...

My target line is this:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE"

 

[American Zombie]

My original one created by setup just says Microsoft Word 2003 and it is grayed out so you can not change it.

But a new shortcut with full path to Winword.exe works for what KC wants to do.

 

[kcnychief]

My original one created by setup just says Microsoft Word 2003 and it is grayed out so you can not change it.

But a new shortcut with full path to Winword.exe works for what KC wants to do.

AWESOME, thx! Reps coming..

 

[Mastershakes]

I wonder why they do that? (Make a special shortcut)

Perhaps since it wouldn't know which directory you may have installed Office 2003 to?

 

[madmatt]

Microsoft Office uses a program called misc.exe to launch applications (via switches).

This file can be found in: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{....}

e.g. C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}

The Installer folder is a protected operating system folder.

 

[Mastershakes]

hence the gray out?

Nice explanation Matt, thanks !

 

[madmatt]

More and more programs are using this method. Adobe Acrobat 7.0 (Standard/Professional) is the same.

 

[Admiral Michael]

Why do they choose to do it that way? Have another app launch the app you want. I think its redicolous.

 

[madmatt]

I don't know what the thought process is behind it. I would assume it's easier to add switches for all the programs into one executable.