File Associations

A File association allows you to double-click a spreadsheet file anywhere in Windows, and have a program such as Microsoft Excel or EasySpreadsheet open it.  

If you were previously using Microsoft Office, and you double-click a spreadsheet (*.xls) file, it will open automatically with Microsoft Excel. If you were not previously using any particular office suite or spreadsheet program, and you double-click a spreadsheet (*.xls) file, Windows will pop up a dialog box, asking you to choose a program to open the file with.

EasyOffice has the option of setting file associations upon installation. It does NOT automatically do so, since in the past, a number of users have wanted to keep their existing Microsoft Office file associations.

If you did not set the file associations to EasyOffice during installation, you can easily do so from within EasySpreadsheet (or from within EasyWord, or EasyHelper). It's easy, fast, and you don't even have to reboot the computer.

 

Changing File Associations

  1. Go to the File2 menu, and select File Associations.

  2. A Change file association help window will appear. Click OK, continue.

  3. You will be brought to a Restore your file associations window.

  4. Check off the file types whose file association you want to change.

  5. For the checked-off file type, you have the option to:

If the file associations are set to EasyOffice, the programs that will open the files are:

File Type

Default Program

.rtf

EasyWord

.doc

EasyWord

.txt

EasyWord

.xls

EasySpreadsheet

.zip

EasyZip

Note: Unless changed manually, EasySpreadsheet will always be used to open .ess files.

Your previous file associations are stored in the registry of your computer. When you restore your file associations, these stored associations are what your settings will return to. If restoring your file associations does not give the results you were looking for, it is because the file associations that you now want did not exist before the associations were set to EasyOffice. (They may have existed earlier, but were changed by another program, prior to setting file associations to EasyOffice.)

If you want to associate another program (i.e., a program that was not associated before you installed EasyOffice) with a  file type, you must do so via File Types in Windows (described in "Setting File Associations Manually", below), or by installing the program again (assuming that program sets the file associations upon installation).

  1. Click OK.

  2. File associations are now changed.

  3. If you selected Set to EasyOffice:

If you selected Restore Original Settings:

 

Setting File Associations Manually

Setting file associations manually is not necessary, nor is it always easily possible; for example, you may not be able to easily find the file type you that want to associate. However, some users may want to do so in order to associate some other program with a given file type.

Windows 95 / Windows 98:

  1. In My Computer or in Windows Explorer, go to the View menu and click Folder Options.

  2. Click the File Types tab.

  3. Select the file type (e.g., an .xls file).

  4. Click Edit.

  5. In the Actions box, click open. (This will highlight it.)

  6. Click Edit.

  7. In Applications used to perform action enter the program you want associated with the file type (or, use the Browse button to select the program).

  8. Click OK.

 

Windows Me / Windows 2000:

  1. In My Computer or in Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu and click Folder Options.

  2. Click the File Types tab.

  3. Select the file type (e.g., an .xls file)

  4. Click Change.

  5. Select the program you want to associate with the file.

  6. Click OK.

 

Un-installing EasyOffice & File Associations

When you un-install EasyOffice (if you ever do so), during the un-installation, EasyOffice will automatically write back to the registry the original settings for the associations of the .xls files.

If these programs are no longer on your computer, or Windows has somehow otherwise changed since the installation of EasyOffice, then file types such as .xls will no longer be associated with any program; when you double-click them, nothing will happen. To associate these file types again, you can follow the procedure shown above ("Setting File Associations Manually"). If this procedure does not work, then you may have to install the desired program again.

For example, perhaps .xls files originally opened in Microsoft Excel when double-clicked, but you then set the .xls file association to EasyOffice. When you un-install EasyOffice, the file association will be set back to Microsoft Excel. If Windows does not allow this restoration, perform the association yourself, as described above. If that fails, re-install Microsoft Excel.