OSX - "Open With" and "Always Open With"
DIGG IT!
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Published
Friday, August 31, 2007
at
8:44 AM
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As with many developers switching to the MAC there are lots of shortcuts to learn. The most important I have found recently is "Open With" and "Always Open With". If you right click on any file in OSX you get a menu that looks like this:
While this menu is displayed hold down "Option" and it switches to this:
This makes it easy to switch the default application for a particular file.
Cha-Ching!
Ted :)
Not exactly discoverable user-experience, huh ? But lifesaver, thanks! :)
I just wanted to add to Ted's excellent post. One can also select the "Other..." option in the "Open With" submenu if (like me) one has a long list of programs to choose from. The subsequent dialog box lets you choose he app you would like to associate with the file type and has an "Always Open With" check box to make the association permanent.
right click on any file and choose
Get info>
Open with>
[Choose application to open all documents like this and click]
Change All
New one for me Ted. That deserves a few Rock On!'s I think.
i dig this alot. i'm new to os x as a flash developer also. and i am always looking for some good tips. i'd love to see you post some great apps, tools or other osx info you might have for us making the switch. i imagine a ton of us are making this jump right now since apple is making the best products for us right now! and with AIR its only going to get better! woo hoo!
"Always open with..." doesn't operate in as precise a fashion as you would expect. OS X tends to grab back some of the extensions and reassociate them with the default applications over a period of time. And in some cases they plain just won't update. To get around this I would suggest trying out this little prefs pane application called RCDefaultApp. It lets you set defaults not only on file extensions, but file types, MIME, URL schemes and a few other bits and bobs. It's a lot less painful that opening individual context menus all the time :p
HTH
FG
I find it confusing using the Cntl-Click, Option method to change the default application. Not because it doesn't change the default app, but because when you use the Cntl-click on the icon the next time, mine still shows the original default application and not the new default. Then, if I use the the Cmd-I to open the Info panel, it shows the new default application, not the original. An inconsistency thats confusing.