Dear [Lynn],
In order to view these files, you must create a file association on your computer. It turns out that Netscape browser can display PHP files. And so, we’ll create an association between this file type and Netscape. That is, whenever you attempt to open PHP files, the Netscape browser will be invoked automatically. Use the following procedure to set this up.
1. First, determine where on your hard drive your netscape.exe file is located. You can learn this by going to your desktop and right-clicking on your Netscape Communicator Icon. A pop-up menu should appear.
2. Pick Properties . . . from that menu. The Properties sheet appears.
3. Then, choose the Shortcut tab from the Properties sheet. The Shortcut sheet appears.
4. Locate the Target edit box on this sheet. This gives the complete path to the Netscape executable program file. On my computer the path is “c:program filesnetscapecommunicatorprogramnetscape.exe” although on yours, this may be different. At any rate, write down this path.
5. Then, click the Cancel button to close the Properties window. Your desktop should appear once again.
6. On your desktop, double click the My Computer icon. The My Computer window appears.
7. In there, select the Options item from the View menu. The Options sheet appears.
8. Click the File Types tab. This switches the Options window’s view to the File Types sheet.
9. Next, click the New Type… button to bring up the screen that will allow you to add a new file association to your computer. The Add New File Type window opens.
10. In that window, in the Description of Type edit box, type in “PHP File”.
11. Then, tab down to the Associated Extension field and enter “.php”
12. Next, tab down to the Content Type (MIME) field, and click the downward pointing arrow at the far right of the field, to activate the pull down list box.
13. Scroll down in that list box until you locate an entry called “text/html”. Once you find this, single click that entry. This should cause the pull down list box to collapse to a single line, with text/html listed in that line.
14. Next in the lower left corner of the Add New File Type window, click on the New… button. This brings up the New Action window.
15. In that window, in the Action field, type in “Open”.
16. Then tab down to the Application used to perform action: field, and enter the path to the Netscape executable program that you wrote down in step 4 above. Note that this path must be exact. The case of the letters is not important, but any spaces in the path from step 4 must be entered as is, here. Also, you must enclose the path in quotes as in: “c:program filesnetscapecommunicatorprogramnetscape.exe” Do not put any leading or trailing spaces inside the quotes. Only the embedded spaces must be preserved.
17. Next, press the Okay button on the New Action box. This will close that box, and reveal once again the Add New File type box.
18. Next, at the bottom of the Add New File Type dialog box, Uncheck the Confirm file open after download check box.
19. Then, press the Close button in the Add New File Type dialog box. This reveals once again the My Computer window.
20. Close this window to reveal your desktop again. The file association has been made.
You can test this out by pulling up an email message in Eudora that has one of these PHP files as an attachment. Double click the attachment. Netscape should be run, and the file should display then. If you have problems with this procedure, we can talk through it on the phone.
Later.
Tom
