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### 2.2. Open

This command activates a dialog that allows you to load an existing image from your harddrive or an external medium. For alternative, and sometimes more convenient, ways of opening files, see the Files section.

#### Activate Dialog

- The dialog for opening an image file can be called from the toolbox or from an image menu, as File->Open.

- You can open the Dialog by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-O.

#### File browsing

| The left panel is divided into two parts. In the upper part you have your main directories and your storage devices; you cann't modify this list. In the lower part, you have a list of bookmarks; you can add or remove bookmarks.

The middle panel displays a list of the files in the current directory. You select a file by a single left click (a double left click opens the file directly; if you have selected a file different from the current one, a message warns you before overwriting).

Right-clicking on the middle panel leads to the Show Hidden Files command.

With Ctrl+L, you open the "Open Location" dialog that allows you to type a path to a file.

| The selected image is displayed in the Preview if it is an image created by GIMP. File size, resolution and composition are displayed below preview. If your image has been modified by another program, click on preview to update it.
| Above the middle panel, the path of the current directory is displayed: you can navigate along this path by clicking on an element.
| "All files" by default. This means that all file types will be displayed in the middle panel, even if they are not image. You can filter the list for a particular file type.
| Select File Type: In most cases you don't need to pay any attention to this, because GIMP can determine the file type automatically. In a few rare situations, neither the file extension nor internal information suffice to tell GIMP the file type. If this happens, you can set it by selecting it from the list.

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