Creating Personal Actions and Data Types

The desktop provides a tool that helps you create icons for running scripts, applications, and other commands. You may want to use this tool if you have a personal application your system administrator has not configured for you.

For example, suppose you have your own favorite spreadsheet application that you usually start by typing a command into a terminal emulator window:

FavoriteSpreadSheet -file data_file

You can create an icon that runs this command so that you won't have to continue manually typing it. To do this, you must create a special desktop ``macro'' called an action. You can also create a data type for each data_file.

The desktop includes a tool called Create Action that makes it easy to create actions and data types. To open the Create Action window, double-click the Create Action icon in the Desktop_Apps application group.

Figure 6-6 Create Action Window

To see online instructions for using the window:

1. Choose Tasks from the Create Action window's Help menu.

2. Click the hyperlink ``To Create an Action With Create Action.''

   Create Action:

   • Creates an action for your application

   • Places an action icon in your home folder.

   You can move or copy that icon to other locations--for example, to a personal application group that you've created.