How to change the Gnome/Nautilus default text editor?

[jimj]

I have Visual Studio Code installed and I'd like to make it my default text editor. From Nautilus I can right click on a text file, go to "Open With Other Application" and choose "Visual Studio Code". However I'd like to be able to change the default to Visual Studio Code so I can simply double click on a text file to open it in Visual Studio Code. I tried updating "~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list", but that didn't help.

[lightman47]

Have you tried "Properties" when you right click - then 'Open with' tab, and set as default ?

EDIT:
By the way (FYI), you'll be changing the default editor for all files of that type, not just that one file. In your case, I suspect that's what you want.

[TrevorH]

I don't use gnome 3 here but on MATE there is an option of the menu for System -> Perferences -> Personal -> Preferred Applications and there's an "Editor" option on the system tab of that.

[jimj]

Have you tried "Properties" when you right click - then 'Open with' tab, and set as default ?

That was it, I knew I was missing something simple, thanks! With Google as my witness I searched for this and only came up with other simple solutions that didn't apply and more complicated mime type file editing solutions that also didn't work.

[jimj]

I don't use gnome 3 here but on MATE there is an option of the menu for System -> Perferences -> Personal -> Preferred Applications and there's an "Editor" option on the system tab of that.

Gnome 3 has a "Default Applications" settings area that sounds similar, but you can't set the default text editor there.

[jimj]

Just in case anyone didn't think I was stupid enough for not knowing how to change a Nautilus file association, I just noticed the Visual Studio Code CentOS setup page actually tells you how to had see it as your default text editor by running this:

Code: Select all

xdg-mime default code.desktop text/plain