How can I create a shortcut to open a selected file with a particular Application?

I am trying to find a way to create a shortcut for opening a pdf file with a particular application. This is what i do currently(manually):

Step 1. I have a pdf file say MyBook.pdf. I right click on this pdf so that a popup window appears with many options like:

Cut

Paste

Copy

Open with other application

Move to trash

Step 2. I chose/click Open with other application from the above menu and a new popup menu opens up with different options like:

Document Viewer

Google Chrome

Text Editor

Sublime Text

Okular

Step 3. I chose Okular from the above menu and the pdf opens up using Okular.

What i want is that these 3 manual steps should be encapsulated in keyboard shortcut like Ctrl + O + P

Is this possible in Ubuntu 18.04 ?

PS: I am using nautilus-folder-handler.desktop on Ubuntu 18.04

Summary

I want to be able to select any arbitrary pdf by single left click and then press a custom shortcut key that will open that selected pdf using a particular application such as okular.

I noticed that there is options like Ctrl+C for copying Ctrl+X for moving, Ctrl+I for checking the properties of a file just by a single left click and then pressing the corresponding shortcut. I want to do exactly this. That is the user left clicks one time on a file and then press the shortcut which will open the file with a given application.

Solution 1:

1. A shortcut

You can use a selected file as argument to run a script (from this answer):

Setup

• run sudo apt install python3-pyperclip xdotool to install dependencies.
• Copy the script below into an empty file, save it as open_with_okular, and make it executable.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import pyperclip
import time

time.sleep(1)
subprocess.call(["xdotool", "key", "Control_L+c"])
subject = pyperclip.paste()
subprocess.Popen(["okular", subject])

• Create a shortcut to run the script. It will copy the (path + name of) the file, feed it to the script as argument.

2. Using nautilus scripts

Not literally what you are asking, but the easiest and cleanest is to use a nautilus script.

Since you are using nautilus, you can add a custom action:

• Create (if necessary) the directory ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts

• Create a tiny script in the directory:

  #!/bin/bash
  okular "$1"
  

  call it open with okular or something, and make it executable.

Now opening the file is directly possible from rightclick -> Open with Okular.
The file will be passed as the argument to the script.

Solution 2:

This is a two step process.

Step 1 This is exactly the same as answered by @Jacob Vlijm. That is

1. Create (if necessary) the directory ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts
2. Create a file with executable permission and name it whatever you like. For example, create a file named openwithokular and put the following content inside it:

#!/bin/bash
okular "$1"

The result of step 1 is that if you right click on any file now then a script menu option will appear which will contain the option openwithokular and when you click on the openwithokular option the file will open with okular.

Step 2

1. Create the file(if required) ~/.config/nautilus/scripts-accels

2. Add the following content inside it and save it:

F4 openwithokular

Note: Make sure to restart your pc otherwise it won't work.

The result of step 2 is that now there will be a keyboard shortcut associated with the menu option openwithokular inside the scripts menu option obtained from step 1. And this is what we wanted. Now you can just left-click on any file and press the shortcut you have set and the file will open with okular(or any app that you have set). This method is tested to work on Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04.