Configuring LaunchCodes

The LaunchCodes menu

After LaunchCodes has been started—either by itself, or because you started it manually—it places a small icon in the menu bar. Clicking the icon reveals this menu:

The Preferences Window

Choosing Preferences... shows the window where you configure LaunchCodes to your liking.

In this window, you specify which file extensions you want to open based on the file’s creator code. By default, LaunchCodes handles the four extensions you see listed under File Type: txt, rtf, jpg, and html.

Adding and Removing File Extensions

Some files do not have creator codes. Perhaps the original creator code was lost, or maybe the creator application did not specify a creator code. In this situation, a default application must be chosen based on the file extension. The column Default Application shows the default application for each file type.

When you add a new extension to the list, the default application is preset for you, based on your system’s current configuration. You can choose a different application. Clicking on a default application reveals a popup list of applications known to handle that extension. You can select one of the supplied applications, or choose a different application:

You will definitely want to add and remove items from the list, using the + and - buttons below the list. You might find that one extension is all you need in the list. For example, you might just want TextEdit rtf files to open in TextEdit, and Nisus rtf files to open in Nisus. Or, you might want Photoshop to open only image files that it created. In that case you would add extensions for psd, png, gif, tiff, and so on.

Pagehand has built-in support for opening Pagehand PDF files in Pagehand, and other PDF files in the default PDF application. If you use Pagehand, you do not need to have LaunchCodes handle PDF files. You may, if you wish, turn off the automatic PDF handling in Pagehand and let LaunchCodes handle PDF files, but you cannot use both at the same time.

Opening Files Created By Others

If you routinely open files that were created by another person (for example, files stored on a file server), you might want to ignore the creator code. After all, if you did not create the file, you do not know whether its creator code is an application that you care to use. LaunchCodes allows you to limit its use of creator codes to files that you own:

Disabling LaunchCodes

If you want to stop using LaunchCodes for a while, you can disable it by choosing Disable LaunchCodes from the LaunchCodes menu. You might want to do this if you wish to open a particular file in the default application rather than the creator code application. You can then re-enable LaunchCodes by choosing Enable LaunchCodes from the LaunchCodes menu.

If you want to remove LaunchCodes from your system, be sure to disable it first. This will ensure that Snow Leopard uses the default applications when it opens files.