Freigeben über

Keeping docs in Word and not in the browser

  • Artikel

Today, I had one of those moments of minor frustration where a 'feature' bugged me. So I tried to find a way to fix it and it took about 10 minutes to figure out and confirm it worked. That's about 9.5 minutes longer than I would have liked, so I figured I'd post a quick entry on it in case someone else can save a few minutes in the future.

My problem was having Word documents show up in IE whenever I clicked on a link to a document. I can't count the number of times that's happened and I end up saving it out to my desktop and opening it with Word directly. So I went off to see if there was a way to always make it come up in Word. There was a way, though it's not exactly amazingly easy to find. Here's how you do it:

  1. Launch Windows Explorer.
  2. Select “Folder Options...“ from the Tools menu.
  3. Select the “File Types“ tab.
  4. Scroll down the list of “Registered file types“ until you find “DOC - Microsoft Word Document“ and select it.
  5. Click on the “Advanced...“ button at the bottom of the dialog.
  6. Uncheck the “Browse in same window“ checkbox.

That should do the trick. Absolutely far from mind-blowing, but if you're like me, it's a lot nicer this way. This also works for some other file types such as Powerpoint (PPT). Though, I do find that having Powerpoint decks showing up in the browser is more often a good way to go than it is for Word documents. 

Update (4/29): Omar Shahine has gone ahead and figured out what registry keys affect these settings so it can be done via a registry update script instead of the GUI.  You can find more info here.  He also went through a similar exercise for PDF files which you can find here.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2004
    Great tip, I just made this setting change on my workstation. Thanks! -JB.

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2004
    I've long had this feature on my fictitious list for things that are 'annoying, but not enough to actually do anything about it.' I can now concentrate on spackling the ding in my living room wall, changing the oil in my lawn mower, and writing that little log analysis utility I've been meaning to get to, and, and, and... :)

    But seriously, thanks for posting this tip Gus. Very handy.

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2004
    I actually code my website to force the file to download, rather than letting IE open it.

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2004
    Thanks for the tip. This was a minor annoyance for me too :)

    Btw. instead of launching Windows Explorer you can also find "Folder Options" in the Control Panel.

  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2004
    Great tip, this is why I read these blogs. I never even noticed that advanced button before.

    I just hope people stop installing this kind of feature-annoyance by default.

  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2004
    Gus, here you go:

    http://www.shahine.com/omar/PermaLink,guid,b6d6cdba-4b86-439a-a373-8a1cb8a58bca.aspx

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2004
    StickyC.com :: Keeping docs in Word and not in the browser

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2004
    Any ideas how to do the same for Acrobat files?

    The "Browse in same window" is unchecked and disabled.

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2004
    Omar talked about this shortly after I posted this entry. You can read his entry here: http://www.shahine.com/omar/PermaLink,guid,e707e1a5-5873-4d8b-88f8-8b56fb9d15b2.aspx.

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2004
    Addendum Not IE Have you clicked on a link and had a PowerPoint or Word document open in Internet Explorer, rather than in the application it was designed for? Gus Perez brought up the problem in his blog: Open Word files directly in Word not in IE .

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2004
    this doesn't seem to work for me :( whether I check/uncheck the 'Browse in same window' option, it doesn't seem to make any difference. the documents are always opening in Word application (in a separate window). I would like the documents to open with the browser. I have also searched the registry for BrowserFlags key and couldn't find any. any ideas???

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2004
    YES!!! This is so simple!! I HATE the way M$ tries to predict the way people would like to work. There are so many "features" that M$ puts in their software that it takes several days after installing a new PC to FIX their stupid ideas!!

    THANKS AGAIN!!

  • Anonymous
    July 05, 2004
    Just what I was looking for! I'm writing my first web pages that link to word documents (and other types too) and it kept opening the file in the browser. I knew it had to be something with my settings but could not find it. Thanks so much for writing this tip making it easy to find through a search engine!

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2004
    I actually code my website to force the file to download, rather than letting IE open it.
    4/29/2004 7:30 AM | Brian Philippus

    Brian, what code do you use? Does it work for .asp pages? I know that is redundant - Active Server Pages Pages.

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2005
    Thank you so very, very much for this tip. I'm working on a small corporate Intranet and wanted to link to Office documents directly from my site. That "feature" was driving me mad!

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2005
    Thanks, Gus. I saved that 9.5 minutes due to your post. --Pete

  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2005
    Many thanks, easy when you know how...

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2005
    Trouble is, when I go to folder options/file types/registerd file types I have four word related options and in all of them the 'browse in same window' checkbox is greyed out. Any clues anyone?

  • Anonymous
    January 12, 2006
    Many thanks, this works perfectly.

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2006
    Your site is realy very interesting.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2006
    Thanks mate - great tip - really helped me out!

  • Anonymous
    January 22, 2009
    PingBack from http://www.hilpers.fr/942844-sps2003-pb-douverture-de-document

  • Anonymous
    January 22, 2009
    PingBack from http://www.hilpers.nl/393892-browse-in-same-window-greyed