Non-Text-Files Sublime Text plugin

Sometimes it would be more useful if Sublime Text launched the default application for certain file types instead of displaying it in the editor. For example, if you open a PDF from the Sublime Text sidebar, the incomprehensible stream of compressed data is most often not what you intended to view. Instead you would like to view the document using your default viewer, be it Acrobat or Evince or any other.

This plugin offers settings and commands to control when Sublime should open certain files with external applications.

There is an option to turn off previews for binary files and options to open files with their default external applications.

If you like this plugin and would like to support its development please consider donating through a paypal donation.

Changelog

v1.3

• “Open Externally” should now handle right click on sidebar correctly (fixes #2)

v1.2

• multiple matching patterns do not trigger open multiple times
• double click behaviour is now more stable and predictable
• preview closing is more reliable

Installation

1. Install Sublime Text

2. Install the plugin either:

   • with Package Control: see https://sublime.wbond.net/docs/usage, or
   • manually: by cloning this repository in your Sublime Text Package directory

3. Customise the open_externally_patterns setting in your preferences (Preferences > Settings - User)

Features and settings

Prevent Binary File Preview

When the setting prevent_bin_preview is set to true (default), clicking on a file matching any of the binary_file_patterns would not open the file. Double click will open it normally: this is useful when using plugins like Hex​Viewer or Zip Browser.

The prevent_bin_preview settings can be set globally in the User/Preferences.sublime-settings file or locally to a project.

Open files with external applications

Sometimes it would be more useful if Sublime Text launched the default application for certain file types instead of displaying it in the editor. This plugin allows you to do that via a special option: the files matching any of the open_externally_patterns will be opened with the default application as configured in your OS instead of using Sublime. You can set it globally in the User/Preferences.sublime-settings file or locally to a project. This setting follows the same syntax of the binary_file_patterns setting: it is just a list of glob patterns. An example:

"open_externally_patterns": [
    "*.jpg",
    "*.jpeg",
    "*.png",
    "*.gif",
    "*.zip",
    "*.pdf"
]

The plugin also offers a window command open_externally that opens a file with the default application. It takes two optional arguments:

• path is the path of the file to be opened; if empty the file of the current view will be opened;
• then_close if true will close the view after opening the file.

You can bind this command to a shortcut by adding the following to your keymap:

{
  "keys": ["super+enter"], "command": "open_externally",
  "args": {"then_close": false}
}