how to open Hyperlinked files by default software?

Question

Non-Mathematica formats, e.g. .doc or .txt files, are directly shown in a new notebook when I click on a hyperlink pointing at these objects. But I would rather have (for example) .doc files opened using Microsoft Word. How can one create a hyperlink that opens a file in its associated application, rather than in Mathematica?

Answer 1

You can open with Word like this:

file = "http://backend.ewock.com/ewockhome/images/word8.doc";

Run["start winword \"" <> file <> "\""];

And you could make a hyperlink like this:

Row[{Style["Demo\[ThinSpace]", FontFamily -> "Arial"],
 Button[Style["test doc", Blue, FontFamily -> "Arial"],
  Run["start winword \"" <> file <> "\""], Appearance -> "Frameless"],
 Style["\[ThinSpace]hyperlink", FontFamily -> "Arial"]}]

Answer 2

Slightly modified version of this answer to a related Q/A.

Row[{"Buttons that look like hyperlinks to open files \n ", 
Sequence @@ (Button[
   Dynamic@Style[#[[1]], 14, 
     If[CurrentValue["MouseOver"], "HyperlinkActive", 
      "Hyperlink"]], 
   SystemOpen[$InstallationDirectory <> 
     "\\Documentation\\English\\System\\ExampleData\\" <> #[[2]]],
    Appearance -> None] & /@
 {{"Spikey   ", "spikey2.png"},
  {"Calendar   ", "calendar.ics"},
  {"A pdf file   ", "mathematica.pdf"}}),
  " \nusing ", Hyperlink["SystemOpen", "paclet:ref/SystemOpen"], "."}]