How to open a file directly?

[Sausage]

Hey guys, I'm looking to find out how I might be able to open a file directly through the console.

I understand the use of fstream but it doesn't exactly achieve what I need.

I'm looking to display a list of options to the user, and if the user enters lets say '1', it opens up an actual file such as an excel spreadsheet or a word document.

How could I achieve this?

Thanks.

[kevinkjt2000]

I assume you are talking about microsoft office? Or at least something similar such as open office. Do you realize what you are asking??? Taking a graphical file that has pictures, fancy fonts, tables, etc. and attempting to shove all the fancy stuff to a console screen which has no support for fancy stuff. If that is what you want, it is not going to happen.

[MiiNiPaa]

Do you want to launch corresponding program to open desired file?

[Sausage]

@kevinkjt2000

No I'm not trying to do that, I want the console to open up an external file. I don't want it to display it within the console.

I'd display a menu to the user, such as type '1' for scores. Then if the user enters 1, the console will open up an external word file that has that data.

I basically just want the console to act as a short cut to another file on my system.

@MiiNiPaa

Yes, I want the console to open up an external file, which could be a notepad file, word file or an excel spreadsheet etc.

[MiiNiPaa]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762153%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

[kevinkjt2000]

I want to point out that the windows command prompt does this already if you type the name of the file you want to open (including the extension).