File Formats and the Editor

You can create, open, and edit text files, IDL program (.pro) and SAVE (.sav) files in the Editor. Any files in these formats will open in the internal editor, where you can use all the built-in IDL features to make any changes.

For other file types, the IDL Editor attempts to open the file using the default editor. If this built-in editor cannot open the file, the Workbench then tries the system-defined editor for that file type.

For example, in a Windows system, the Editor attempts to use OLE to open a .doc file in Microsoft Word within the Editor interface. The Microsoft Word menu and tool bars display, so that you can use the functionality of Word within the Workbench.

Note
This Windows OLE functionality works for many other file types, including Windows Excel (.xls) and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files. If you have image file types associated with an image editor, dragging an image from the Project Explorer to the Workbench Editor opens the file in the associated image editor.

You can also edit IDL project files outside of the Workbench, and change the file associations defined by IDL. See Associating Editors with File Types for details.