Open Documents One After The Other with Execian

Today I made changes to more than 30 category php files here on Ghacks. Instead of opening them one by one, I decided to test the freeware Execian for Windows, which offers functionality to automate part of the process. The program basically can load all selected files one by one in the default file viewer or a selected program.

Editing php files is just one example. While the program works really well for all development related files, it can also be used for Word or Excel documents, archive or log files, or any other type of document format that you may have the need to access or edit on your computer.

Execian

Execian is a free portable program for Windows that you can start right after you have extracted the archive contents on your system.

You can add documents to the program via drag and drop, or with a click on the plus icon and the selection of documents in the file browser. It is theoretically possible to add non-document formats to the list, but this does not work well. I have tested the program with avi and jpg files and the program did either display an error message or only one of the files in the default viewer.

Once you have added your documents to the list, you can select to run them in the default file viewer, or select a different file viewer from the list. The default viewer gives you the best flexibility in terms of format support. If you select a specific program instead, you need to make sure that it supports all the formats that you have added to the program listing.

You can then open the first document of the list in the selected viewer with a click on the open button. Once you are done editing or reading, you can close the window to have Execian open the next document in line. This is repeated until the last document has been opened and closed.

Closing Words

Execian can be an interesting program for users who often read or edit dozens of documents in succession. The program is very versatile in this regard, as it can open the selected documents in the default file viewer on the system.

Options to load all documents in a folder structure, and to save document lists for re-use would be handy additions.

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