See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-firefox-behavior-when-open-file

No screen shot (PrtScreen isn't working, or if it is it's sending to to some unknown hell-pit (no Screenshots folders have anything from today:-).

Here's a Clipboard paste of the relevant area:

Files and Applications Downloads Save files to Browse… Always ask you where to save files Applications Choose how Firefox handles the files you download from the web or the applications you use while browsing. AV1 Image File (AVIF) Extensible Markup Language (XML) iCalendar File irc ircs JPEG Image libre mailto Microsoft Excel Comma Separated Values File Microsoft Excel Worksheet Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Microsoft Word 97 - 2003 Document Microsoft Word Document odopen p9wzdncrfhwhp p9wzdncrfj31n PAS file Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/pdf) Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/vnd.pdf) Portable Document Format (PDF) (binary/octet-stream) Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Text Document video/ webcal WebP Image WinZip File (application/x-zip-compressed) WinZip File (application/zip) zoommtg What should Firefox do with other files? Save files Ask whether to open or save files Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content Play DRM-controlled content Learn more

There is a listbox (from "Choose how Firefox handles the files you download" to "What should Firefox do with other files"). This is the listbox to which I want to add an entry. The list has 2 columns (only one seems to show here), but if I try searching for a new file type all I get is an empty list box. If I put in Microsoft - I get all the applications that match, but either way, no obvious means of adding a new entry.

I know that no-one ever wants to change anything about Firefox (;-) but I must have added some of these in the past 6 years?

FWIW I have "Ask whether to open or save files set as the default - in Downloads and Other files - but it doesn't always do that:-)

Thanks for following up, Dropa

Hi, Cor-el

You actually underscore my problem. The referenced Help section says:

"If Firefox does not have a set download action for a type of file, Firefox will save the file by default. If you select Always Open Similar Files in the Downloads panel right-click context menu for the file, (see below) a new Content Type and Action entry will be added to the General panel Applications section of Firefox settings. "

So - this looks like it would be exactly what I want. Except it doesn't work! I made the changes to my wife's computer (where the problem is occurring), exited out of Firefox, went back to the e-mail with the problem attachments (all MS Word), and tried again. I got to the download button (which on my PC also gives me an "Open with" option), and clicked the Save icon, as well as "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" (not the place where the reference suggested I make a change, but since nothing was created, that wasn't going to work at any rate.

No entry for Microsoft Word was created!

I'm still looking, but thanks for making me read the help section a little more closely!

Tony

You can only set a new automatic action if the server sends the file with a valid MIME type for this file extension. If the file is send as "application/octet-stream" or "content-disposition:attachment" then you can't save the action (i.e. the action if for the content-type and not for the file extension).

This extension may help : https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/content-type-fixer/

Thanks, Terry

It sounds as though this add-on would do the job. I have a couple of little concerns before I install it.

The help page references Firefox 98 (!). I don't know how long this 'feature' has been around, but I seem to have been able to add some of the Microsoft types into my own computer. My wife has been unable to add the docx one, which is why I wrote. If it goes all the way back to version 98, I'm surprised that no-one has raised it as a fundamental UI design flaw.

<Personal Opinion> A ''List '' displays entries from some sort of data storage mechanism. Good UI design allows not only for Viewing such entries, but also Adding, Editing and Removing entries from that storage mechanism. It is possible to Edit an entry (the right-hand side of the list, captioned Action, allows you to change the action taken by Firefox. However there seems to be no way of Adding or Removing an entry. This is not a feature, it is a design flaw! (And should be fixed)

</Personal Opinion>

The second is the way in which the add-on works. It seems to interpose a fixed procedural overhead (every page or request gets run through the add-on code). Compare this with adding an entry to the existing table - which is already being executed for each request, and seems to be able to execute an option if it can find the entry. In other words, it adds a lot of code which ought not to be necessary. This multiplies the possibility of unintended consequences.

Can anyone report how well/effectively the add-on works?

Thanks,

Tony