i am trying to open a pdf file without having to do a right-click but nothing is working, instead of opening it in adobe acrobat pdf viewer it opens in gimp and i don't want that. i have been trying to set it to a default program but it's not staying and cooperating. i right clicked on the file and wet to open file with another application and chose the command "#acroread" because acrobat reader isn't present in the menu. and after saving it, it will open up in acrobat of course but closing it and opening it again by double left clicking it appears in gimp. is there some sort of configuration file to set this manually because the gui method isn't working out.

You don't mention which desktop you are using, but in GNOME you need to right click on the icon, select Properties, click on the "Open With" tab, select the application, then click on "Set as default" or Close button (depending on version of GNOME).

i am using gnome 3 and it worked, i'm setting all of my files now thanks