This tip works equally well in both the Windows NT and Windows 95 browsers, and makes managing HTML files a bit easier by adding some file-type specific menu items to the Windows Explorer.

In the Explorer, select “View”|”Options…”, then click on the “File Types” tab on the dialog. In the “Registered File Types:” scroll list, find the type for HTML files. If you installed Netscape’s browser, this will be under “Netscape Hypertext Document”. If you installed the MS Internet Explorer, the type will be called simply “Internet Document (HTML)”.

Highlight this type, and click on the “Edit” button. With this “Edit File Type” dialog, you can change the actions that are possible on this file type. I like to add an “Edit” command that calls my HTML editor, and even an “Edit with Notepad” command for those really quick edits. If you run multiple browsers, you could add “Open with Netscape” and “Open with NCSA” commands, for instance. Then, highlighting a file of this type in the Explorer will put these actions on the “File” menu, and they will also appear on the Explorer’s right-mouse button (object-specific) menu.

While you’re in the Explorer’s “Edit File Type” dialog, you may want to check the “Enable Quick View” box. Quick View will treat HTML as straight text, but that’s sometimes enough to be useful.