Problem with answer file(s)

[Ian Wood]

On 4 Aug 2009, at 18:48, Graham Samuel wrote:

> My real example, BTW, was
>
> answer files "Select some KML files" with type "KML Files|kml|TEXT"
>
> and this worked, although I had to guess that the files were of type  
> TEXT (as they're kind of simple XML files this seemed the most  
> likely). So it seems that the type TEXT has some meaning to the OS.
>
> I would be perfectly happy if there was a simple filter on the  
> traditional file extension, but there you are.

According to the docs, the middle part of "KML Files|kml|TEXT" is  
filtering for the extension, and a quick test confirms it - leave the  
other parts empty and you can filter purely by extension. For example:

answer files "Pick a file:" with type "|txt|"

will only allow you to select a file with the extension '.txt',  
regardless of file type. Adding a type lets you also choose files by  
type (if they have a type). I'm assuming tags (the first part) are  
something to do with Windows.

Have you read the user notes by benr_mc for 'with type'? Very handy.

> Incidentally, I did not expect to see the other (non-kml) files in  
> the directory at all, but in fact they are visible but dimmed. Never  
> mind.

That's standard OS X behaviour - I can't think of any native OS X app  
that will actually hide files in an open file dialog box, other than  
files that are also hidden in the Finder.
This is one of the things that really throws me sometimes on Windows-   
I KNOW that a file is in a particular folder, but the open dialog  
initially doesn't show that file. Grrr.

> Should I submit a bug report (for the documentation)?

Depends. The docs for 'answer file with type' are correct as far as I  
can tell. The regular 'answer file' docs are rather less useful,  
though. :-(

Ian