Fetch Help > Commands > Edit

The Edit command lets you make changes to any kind of file in another application and save the changes back to the server automatically.

This command is available as:

- The Edit command in the Remote menu
- The Edit button in the transfer window toolbar
- The Edit command in the file list contextual menu
- The Edit command in the shortcut list window contextual menu

When you select a file in the file list and choose the Edit command, Fetch downloads the file to a temporary location and opens it in the editor application for that kind of file.

After you use the editor's Save command to save your changes, Fetch automatically uploads the changed file back to its original location. (A copy of the file will not be left on your Macintosh.) This provides a convenient way to edit files on a server.

Fetch supports editing any kind of file with any application on your Macintosh. The default editor for a kind of file is usually the same as the application that would normally open that kind of file, although in certain cases the editor may be different from the normal opening application because that application cannot edit files.

If Fetch does not open the application you would like to use for editing a certain kind of file — or you would like to use a different editor temporarily — hold down the Option key when choosing the Edit menu item or clicking the Edit button and the command will become Edit With. Fetch will ask you to choose a different application to use for editing and whether you want Fetch to remember this choice for the future or not.

You can also choose a different editor to use temporarily with the Edit With submenu in the Remote menu or the contextual menus.

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

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

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

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

If you hold down the Shift key when selecting the Edit command, the command becomes Edit Other and Fetch will prompt you for a filename. The file must already exist on the server. Edit Other is only available when a transfer window is the active window.

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

If you 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.

When you use the Edit command to edit a file with BBEdit 9.2 or later (or TextWrangler 3.0 or later), Fetch will pass along encoding specified by the Preferred encoding preference as the encoding the file should be displayed in. However, if your file already specifies its encoding with a BOM or an HTML meta tag, BBEdit should detect that and use the proper encoding regardless of Fetch's Preferred encoding setting. Again, the contents of the file are not changed; if the encoding sent to BBEdit is not the correct one, you can use BBEdit's Reopen Using Encoding command to display it in the desired encoding. Currently, no other text editors support recieving the preferred encoding setting from Fetch, but they may be able to detect a file's encoding if it is specified by the file itself. For more information about encodings, see the Character Encoding & Translation help topic.

Related commands:

- Quick Look