Open template files in Dreamweaver

Question

How do I open up the template files in Dreamweaver, without having to go through all the "open with" process? I've had problems getting this to work properly in Vista 64-bit, but have had this working in prior versions of Windows, so I know it's possible.

I'm working with CakePHP, so it uses the "ctp" extension, but I'm sure other frameworks have different extensions, so I decided to leave this as generic as possible.

Answer 1

I found an excellent guide to this question that I've copied and pasted from the following link:

• Configure CakePHP CTP Files in Dreamweaver

For Windows Vista (64-bit) instructions I just want to preface it with the following useful information and tips:

1. Instead of "Program Files" use "Program Files (x86)".
2. The location of AppData is quickly accessible by holding the [Windows key] (between CTRL and ALT) and pressing "R" for Run. This will give you a Run prompt, within which you should type "shell:appdata". This will give you a Windows Explorer window in your AppData folder. My Dreamweaver configuration file was found here: "C:\Users\Jed Hunsaker\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver CS4\en_US\Configuration".
3. Now is a good time to open another Run prompt and type "shell:sendto". Add shortcuts here to Notepad, Dreamweaver and why not Google Chrome and/or Firefox? Whatever you like.

Now for the pasted instructions in case that link above is broken when you read this:

For Configure/Opening CakePHP CTP Files in Dreamweaver 3 files that you need to edit:-

• C:\Program Files\(Adobe or Macromedia)\(Adobe )Dreamweaver(version like 8 or cs3)\configuration

Open up “Extensions.txt” and on the first line at the very end add THTML and CTP separated by commas, so the line should read:

• ,MASTER,THTML,CTP:All Documents

Similarly add these two extensions to the “:PHP Files” line.

• PHP,PHP3,PHP4,PHP5,TPL,THTML,CTP:PHP Files

Next open the “DocumentTypes” folder and edit the “MMDocumentTypes.xml” file, just open it up using notepad or wordpad. Search for the line which has an id “PHP_MySQL” and add the THTML/CTP file extensions to both the “winfileextension” and “macfileextension” so the line should read:

• winfileextension=“php,php3,php4,php5,thtml,ctp”
• macfileextension=“php,php3,php4,php5,thtml,ctp”

The final file is another version of the “Extensions.txt” which is located in your “Documents and Settings” Folder in my case this is “C:\Documents and Settings(User_Name)\Application Data(Adobe or Macromedia)(Adobe )Dreamweaver(version like 8 or cs3)\configuration” just add the very same things you inserted earlier in “Extensions.txt” .