Picasa & File Associations

Hi there everyone!

Thanks to everyone who called in today - we had a great show and there were some super questions. In particular, I mentioned to Heather from Atheron that I would put some instructions up on the web on how to change the file associations for certain file types.

Basically when installing some software, the new software can make changes to the "file associations". This is the bit that tells Windows what program to use to open a particular file type. For example, it's what tells your computer to use word to open anything that end with ".doc", or use excel to open ".xls" and so on.

Now there is a lot of different file types for images - the most common seems to be ".jpg" so I will talk about that one. Note: if you have a camera that records images as ".jpeg" or you have files in any other file type (.bmp , .png , .gif , .raw or anything ) then you will need to repeat these instructions below to reset the file association for every type you want to use.

There are a couple of ways of doing this - try the other if the first does not work.

Method A:

1) Open Windows Explorer by right-clicking the Start button, and then click Explore.
2) Click a folder that contains a file of the type that you want Windows to open in a program that you select.
3) Right-click the file and, depending on the programs installed on your computer, complete one of the following steps:
a) Click Open With to choose the program that you want.
b) Point to Open With, and then click Choose Program to choose the program that you want.
4) The Open With dialog box is displayed. Use one of the following methods to select the program that you want to use for this file type:
a) In the Programs list, click the program that you want to use.
b) OR Click Browse, locate and then click the program that you want to use, and then click Open.
c) OR Click Look for the appropriate program on the Web to browse the Internet for the program that you want to use.
5) Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box if it is not selected.
6) Click OK.

Method B:

1) Open Windows Explorer by right-clicking the Start button, and then click Explore.
2) Click a folder that contains a file of the type that you want Windows to open in a program that you select.
3) Right-click the file and, depending on the programs installed on your computer, do the following:
a) Click on Properties
b) Look in the "General" tab, and under the section marked "Type of File" click on the button labelled "Change"
4) The Open With dialog box is displayed. Use one of the following methods to select the program that you want to use for this file type:
a) In the Programs list, click the program that you want to use.
b) OR Click Browse, locate and then click the program that you want to use, and then click Open.
c) OR Click Look for the appropriate program on the Web to browse the Internet for the program that you want to use.
5) Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box if it is not selected.
6) Click OK.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
:)RG