- Mac set default application for file type mac os#
- Mac set default application for file type registration#
- Mac set default application for file type pro#
Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies. This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site. To change just the selected files’ default application, simply select another application from the pop-up menu. Once you have opened a Get Info window, click the “Open with” disclosure triangle to reveal the default application selected by Launch Services.Choose Get Info from the Finder’s shortcut menu by right-clicking or Control-clicking on an item.Choose Get Info from the Action pop-up menu (the small gear icon) in a Finder window toolbar.Choose File > Get Info from the menu bar.To open the Get Info window, do one of the following (performing the same tasks while holding the Option key will open an Inspector window): In the Finder, select the file or multiple files you wish to change the Launch Services settings for, and then open the Get Info or Inspector window.To change a user’s Launch Services settings in the Finder: They are saved to the preference file in each user’s ~/Library/Preferences folder. These custom settings are saved per user, so one user’s application preferences will not override another user’s. For example, Numbers or Excel documents open in Preview and Pages and Word documents open in TextEdit.įrom the Finder’s Get Info window, you can override Launch Services’ default application settings for any specific file type. In Lion, Launch Services maps many common file types to the built-in Preview and TextEdit applications if the primary application is missing.
Mac set default application for file type registration#
The application registration system is pretty good at finding matches, so odds are if the system gives you an error message, then you probably don’t have the correct application for the file. Further, both the Finder and Installer keep track of new applications as they arrive on your system and add their supported file types to the database. However, after every startup or login, a background process automatically scans for new applications and updates this database. Successful file and application match information is cached, so future attempts to open an application are as quick as possible. When a user attempts to open a file of a certain type, Launch Services reads from a database of applications and the types of files each can open to determine a match.
Mac set default application for file type mac os#
For the sake of compatibility, Apple adopted this later method of file type identification as the default for all versions of Mac OS X.Ĭhoosing to show all file extensions in the Finder will override the individual file attribute for hiding the extension as configured from the Get Info and Inspector windows in the Finder.
Using filename extensions has become standard practice, so modern operating systems have been designed to work around this poor design choice by simply hiding the filename extension from the user. Unfortunately, the popularity of other operating systems forced the awkward practice of adding a file type identifier to the end of a file’s name, thus complicating the practice of naming files by requiring the user to identify and maintain the appropriate filename extension such as.
This was a brilliant design that separated the file’s type and default application binding from the file’s name. Apple designed the file identification system to use four-character file type and creator signature file attributes, which were normally hidden from the user. File Type IdentificationĪpple pioneered file type identification when it first introduced the Macintosh operating system. Launch Services identifies the file based on its type and then references an application registration database to determine which application should open the file. When you double-click on a file from the Finder, it asks Launch Services to open the file with the appropriate application. Launch Services is the technology responsible for helping Lion make the connection between a file’s type and the appropriate application. Identifying a file’s type allows Lion to almost always choose the correct application to open when you double-click on a file.
Mac set default application for file type pro#
Apple Pro Training Series: OS X Lion Support Essentials: Supporting and Troubleshooting OS X LionĪside from a file’s name, the most fundamentally important piece of metadata about a file is its type.