OS X Tip #62
Any person using their computer will sooner or later have this happen to them. They will double click on a file or document and the application that opens is NOT the one they wanted.

Many files or documents can be opened by multiple applications. Image files can be used in PhotoShop, iPhoto, or Preview. PDFs can be used in Preview or Adobe Acrobat. OS X keeps a record of the file or documents associated applications. There will be times you want to work on a file or document in YOUR application of choice and NOT what OS X has decided for you. So this is what you can do about that.

If double clicking a file or document opens in an application other than the one you wanted, you have a few options:

You can drag the file to the preferred application’s icon in the Dock or in your Applications folder to open it manually. Or you can open the application you want first and choose Open from the application’s File menu.

You can also, Control + mouse click (right mouse click for multi-button mouse users) on the file or document and then choose “Open With” from the contextual menu. Then choose the application you want to work with.

These methods will work fine, but they will not solve the double clicking problem in the future. To make a file or document open in your preferred application by default, Control + mouse click (right mouse click for multi-button mouse users) on the file or document and then choose Get Info from the contextual menu. The keyboard shortcut is Command (Apple key) + I. Or click once on file or document to highlight it, and in the Finder, go to File menu -> Get Info.

Go to, “Open with” (click the toggle arrow next to Open with if needed to show the menu) and then choose the application you want to use from the pop-up menu. After you change this, the file or document will always open with your chosen application when double clicking on it.

OK, what if you want all files of this type to always open this application to (for instance, if you want Preview to open all your PDF files), just click Change All. OS X will now change all the file associations for this type of file to open the application you choose when double clicking on them!

    | Tags: mac tips, troubleshooting