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I use gnome-do a lot for opening PDF files found with the Files and folders plugin, but the default action for PDFs seems almost always to be run rather than open, which is becoming frustrating.

Every time I select the PDF, I move to the second pane, select open and hit enter. Now roughly one in ten times open is already the default action when a PDF is found, but I can't see any pattern in when open is chosen of run.

Ideally I'd like run to be the default every time, I'd also kind of expect this to gradually become the default since it's the only command I use on PDF files and gnome-do seems to adapt based on behaviour, but this doesn't seem to be happening so I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm doing something wrong.

How are the default actions for file types chosen in gnome-do?

How can I get open to be the default for PDFs?

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2 Answers 2

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The problem was that the executable bit was set in most of the PDF files' permissions. When I unset it the default action becomes 'open'. So I guess gnome-do's actions are determined by permissions, not user behaviour.

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Once you've chosen your action, if you press Shift-Enter instead of Enter, gnome-do will give more weight to the action you chose in the future.

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I've been trying this for a while and it does not seem to be having the effect you describe. The only difference is that the gnome-do screen remains after execution if I use shift-enter. Is this documented somewhere? –  Ian Mackinnon Oct 20 '10 at 15:02
Yeah... I can't figure what I was thinking of there. –  rakslice Dec 10 '10 at 1:37

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