On 20 Mar 2010 at 13:48, Ray Horton wrote: > This is the way in Windows, also, but when I do this I can't get Windows > to recognize or find the newest version of Finale.
I don't have but one version of Finale installed on my computer (and only the one to install, as I've long ago trashed Finale 97, 3.52 and 2.01), so I don't know how Windows handles multiple versions of Finale. Most Windows applications allow only program at a time registered for open files of a particular extension. Access programmers have the same problem, and have to run multiple versions of Access all the time. We don't use OPEN WITH, but SEND TO. It's just a folder in your user profile with shortcuts in it. It's the equivalent of dragging and dropping a file on an icon. You can find it by typing this in the START | RUN box: %UserProfile%\SendTo ...and then you can copy shortcuts for various Finale versions to it, then right click on a file in Explorer, choose Send To and choose the version of Finale. I Googled a bit to see if it was possible for a user to put multiple versions in the OPEN WITH menu and didn't get anywhere. I suspect the applications have to be engineered appropiately, or the file associations set up properly. Eureka! It doesn't involve OPEN WITH, but it's faster still to use, as it puts the choices on the immediate shortcut menu. If you go to FOLDER OPTIONS in CONTROL PANEL, and choose FILE TYPES type, then locate the MUS file association (on my system, it's easier to type N in the listbox and then go back up to MUS). Select it and click the ADVANCED button. This pops up the list of currently defined actions for this file extension. The first OPEN item is the default program for the MUS extension. It will likely be the last-installed version of Finale. If you highlight the existing OPEN and choose EDIT, you'll see a number of fields filled out. I found that you can get everything filled out properly for a new OPEN action simply by creating the action and pasting in the path to the application. You don't actually need to put in the quotes, nor the %1 parameter (one caveat on this later). So, if you followed my instructions, you're viewing the dialog for the default Finale installation. You might want to edit the name, which is OPEN to indicate the version (e.g., Open 2010). Since it's first in the list of actions, it will remain the default for the MUS file association. Now, save that edit and then back in the EDIT FILE TYPE dialog, there is button for NEW -- click that, and in the ACTION put in, e.g., OPEN 2004, and in the APPLICATION USED, paste the full path/filename, e.g., C:\Program Files\Finale04\Finale.exe. Don't check DDE (it will be automatically set up for you), just click OK to save. Then highlight the new action and click EDIT. You'll see that it's now filled out just like the original OPEN action (uses DDE and has the correct data in the other fields), with one exception: there are quotes around the file path, but not around the %1 parameter. Put in double quotes around the %1, i.e., "%1", and then save. (the reason for this latter is so that long filenames are handled correctly; probably not an issue for Finale, but can be an issue for other apps) Now if you got to Windows Explorer and right click on a Finale file, you'll see Open 2010 as the BOLD default action, and Open 2004 as the next choice on the shortcut menu. That's it! And you can add as many Finale versions as you like. In regard to the ordering of the list, each new action is inserted AFTER whatever is selected when you click the NEW button. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
