The type of a data file depends on two sources:
These file type filters can be defined on the "File types" page in the
&link_wpsobj;. For example,
you can create a file type "Acrobat PDF" with the filter *.PDF
,
and all such files will automatically receive that type.
In the above example, if you now associate the "Acrobat PDF" type
with the program object for the Adobe Acrobat Reader, all files
matching *.PDF
can be opened with that program object.
In addition, file types may inherit from each other. You can define those parent-child relationships on the "File types" page in the &link_wpsobj;, simply by dragging the file types around. If a type has thus been made a child of another type, the associations for the parent type will also be available for all data files of the child type.
For example, assume that you also have defined a "PostScript" file type.
Since PDF documents are really special PostScript files, you can make
"Acrobat PDF" a child type of "PostScript". If you have, say, a GhostScript
association for the "PostScript" type, your PDF files can then also be
opened with the GhostScript program.