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Due to the rapidly changing nature of KDE software,
I fear that this may be hopelessly out of date.
| Mapping Applications to Mime-Types |
A common problem that new (and also moderately experienced) users of KDE have
is that of associating file types (read mime types) with applications.
Confusingly, this is separated into a two-step process,
with the two steps being performed by separate parts of the KFM application.
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First the user must create a new mime-type that represents the class of
files they want to associate with the application
e.g. they create a mime-type that represents .png files.
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Then they must create a new application
(or rather, a kdelnk file that will run the application),
and on the Application tab, move the new mime-type from the RHS list
to the LHS list.
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(This step is optional.)
Finally, they may return to the new mime-type and choose a Default Application.
The Default Application is the one chosen when the user opens a file
where there is more than one application that can open files of that type.
This design seems to have arisen from the underlying technology.
It is desirable to communicate to the user that there is a many-to-many
relationship between mime-types and applications
i.e. an application may open more than one mime-type,
and a mime-type may be opened by more than one application.
However, the separation of the process into two distinct tasks
causes problems, as users find it difficult to infer the relationship
from the two separate parts of the interface.
A better approach would be an entirely separate dialogue that allows users
to update the mapping between applications and mime-types in one place.
This dialogue would also have to allow the user to specify the Default Application
for a mime-type.
Although it would not be strictly necessary for this dialogue to be able to create
new mime-types and applications,
this would clearly make it easier for the user,
as they would not have to navigate to the mime-types or applications
configuration directories and then invoke the individual properties dialogues.
An easy way to achieve this would be shortcuts that take you directly
to the mime-type/application properties dialogue.
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