The Edit command lets you edit text files (including HTML files) or image files in a helper application and save changes back to the server automatically.

When you select a file in the file list and choose the Edit command, Fetch automatically determines whether the file is a text or image file, and then downloads the file and opens it either in BBEdit (from Bare Bones Software) or GraphicConverter (from Lemkesoft), as appropriate. BBEdit is the default choice for the text editor if you have it installed, but you can modify the Edit command to use another supported editor—see below.

When you use BBEdit's or GraphicConverter's Save command to save your changes, the application will instruct Fetch to upload the changed file back to its original location. This provides a convenient, automatic way to edit files on a server.

If you just want Fetch to open your files in your favorite application after downloading, but not save them back to the server automatically, see the opening files automatically after downloading help topic. You can specify any application to open files; only the Edit command has limited choices.

If no file is selected, the command changes to Edit New File, which you can use to create new text or image files which will be automatically uploaded to the server when you save them. Fetch will prompt you for the name of the file to be created, ask whether you want to create a text or image file, and then open the appropriate editor.

If Fetch incorrectly guesses the kind of file you are trying to edit, hold down the Option key and the command will become Edit With, and then Fetch will prompt you for whether you want to edit the selected file as text or as an image.

If you hold down the Shift key when selecting this command, the command becomes Edit Other and prompts you for a filename. The file must be on the same server, and must already exist — if you want to create a new file, use the Edit New File command as described above. Edit Other is only available when a transfer window is the active window.

If the editor for the kind of file you've chosen is not available, Fetch will ask you if you want to continue editing. If Fetch cannot determine what kind of file you've selected, it will ask you which editor you want to use.

You must leave Fetch open while you edit files in BBEdit or GraphicConverter in order for them to be saved back to the server (you do not have to remain connected to the server, however).

For text files, this feature requires BBEdit or BBEdit Lite (version 4.0 or later), any version of TextWrangler, or selected other text editors (see below). For image files, this feature requires GraphicConverter (version 3.8 or later).

You can tell Fetch to automatically edit text or image files when you double-click them. See the editing files automatically instead of downloading help topic.

Other text editors also support the external editor protocol used for this feature. Currently, the editors that support automatically saving changes back to the server are: BBEdit, TextWrangler, Smultron, SubEthaEdit, TextMate, CSSEdit, Page Spinner, skEdit, Tag, Tex-Edit Plus, AlphaX, Jedit X, mi, Pepper, and Style. You can change which editor Fetch uses with the Edit text files with pop-up menu in the Obscure Preferences pane. You can only choose from applications that support the Fetch Edit command.

Because no graphics application besides GraphicConverter supports the Fetch Edit command, you cannot change the editor Fetch uses for images.

You can also change the editing application for a specific kind of text file in the Transfer Options pane of the info window.

Related commands:

• View

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