Add Actions in Windows Explorer

You can utilize the ability of CSE HTML Validator to accept command line arguments by specifying new actions in Windows Explorer for files ending in certain extensions, such as "htm" and "html". Then when you right-click on a document in Windows Explorer, you can select validate (or another function, such as a tool) from the context menu and immediately validate the document without manually launching HTML Validator. You can also do the same for the lowercase tool, uppercase tool, and other tools.

CSE HTML Validator includes a built in function that automatically adds file associations so that right-clicking on supported documents brings up a menu that includes a validation option. If you'd like to add or remove the file associations, then you can select the appropriate menu option from the Options->File Associations menu.

The steps to manually add other actions are listed below because you may want to add your own actions. For instance, you may want to add an action that uses the template tool on an HTML document. The below example gives you the steps to do this.

NOTE: The steps may be different depending on what operating system you are using, but the technique is the same.

NOTE: As of this writing on March 10th, 2007, Windows Vista does not support adding actions as described here.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Select Tools->Folder Options (or select Options or Folder Options from the View menu).
3. Select the File Types tab.
4. Search the Registered file types for any entries that are for "htm" extensions. If you find one, select it, press the Advanced or Edit button, click New, and skip to step 7, otherwise press the New or New Type button and go to the next step.
5. Enter "Hypertext Document" in the Description of type edit box (or use the Advanced options) and enter "htm" (without the quotes) in the File Extension or Associated extension edit box.
6. Press the OK or New button.
7. Enter "Process with Template Tool" (without the quotation marks) in the Action edit box and then press the Browse button. Locate HTML Validator's command line processor executable file (for example, cmdlineprocessor.exe), select it, and click Open.
8. In the Application used to perform action edit box, add a space following the executable's filename and then a "-t" (without the quotes). This is the argument used by HTML Validator to tell it to process the file with the template tool. If you want to validate the file, then you don't have to add anything or you can add "-v" after the executable's filename.
9. Click OK. Click OK again if needed. Click Close.
10. Repeat the procedure for "html" or for other file extensions, if desired.

Adding Other Actions

You may follow a similar procedure for adding menu options that allows you to immediately process an HTML document with the lowercase tool, uppercase tool, or any other tool available through a command line switch. For instance, for the lowercase or uppercase tool, simply add a -l or -u to the HTML Validator command line when specifying the application used to perform the action, and enter lowercase tool or uppercase tool for the action name. For a more complete list of available commands, see the documentation about command line arguments.