How to set the default program to open a certain type of file in Mac OS X

January 28, 2007 | Posted in OS X |

You can easily set the default program to open certain file types from any “Get Info” window, from any file in Mac OS X.

It can get annoying when you double click on a jpeg from your desktop and it tries to open in Photoshop. Not only is it annoying, it can be a time waster as you close the default application and drag the file to an application on the dock.

If you want to set a default application for a certain file type to open in, control click (right click) on any file and choose “Get Info.”

Right click on any file and select 'Get Info'

In the “Get Info” options, you can easily select which application you would like to be the default for opening your file.

Select your preferred default application

After selecting the default app for the single file, apply it to all files of the same type by clicking on the “Change All” button in that same Get Info window.

Choose to apply to all files of this type

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 4:07 am and is filed under OS X. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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61 Responses to “How to set the default program to open a certain type of file in Mac OS X”

  1. Mark Jan 29, 07 at 1:26 pm

    If you option + right click you also get a “Always open with….” option and you can select that way.

  2. Allison Mar 24, 07 at 2:25 pm

    THANK YOU for posting this. I have tried to use the “always open with…” option, but it only “always” works for the one file you’re using. I have a ton of photos on my computer that, for some reason, have got it in their head to open in Photoshop instead of Preview, which slows down my computer pretty terribly as Photoshop takes a while to start up. Thanks to this article I can fix them! Hooray!

  3. Leon Apr 12, 07 at 1:44 pm

    this article is brilliant!! awsome thantk…. it was doing my head in not beeing able to open my pics on the right prog….. wicked ! :D

  4. Kelly Apr 19, 07 at 1:22 pm

    Thanks so much ! I had been trying this through all the different preferences and could never figure it out!

  5. Alex Apr 25, 07 at 6:57 am

    Thank You

  6. Bernard May 21, 07 at 8:12 am

    I tried to associate all files having a doc extension with an applescript. When this applescript is invoked, it generates a tcl script in a parallel shared folder. The windows virtual machine executes it and opens Word under windows. The file association works fine as long it is indidual. When I try to make it global with the “change all” button, then the file association is reset to Pages.app.

    The problem is probably on my applescript side which is not on the official creator list. How can I make it working?

  7. Alan May 29, 07 at 11:26 am

    Yay! Thanks - I was getting cross not being able to do this.

    One slight wrinkle… I found that doing this worked 100% OK except that I needed to re-launch Finder before it would admit that indeed it had changed all icons for me.

    Thanks lots :-)

  8. Donna Jun 1, 07 at 9:44 am

    Good work! Thanks for this information!

  9. Tintin Jun 22, 07 at 9:25 pm

    Fabulous!
    One problem less for an ex-windows user!
    Thanks too, and to Alan, for remind about the Finder re-lauch for the icons change!

  10. Carol Aug 16, 07 at 7:35 am

    This really helped a lot because everytime I edit some photos it either open up photoshop or graphic converter and it really take some time. Thank you! xoxoxo

  11. Forum Sep 12, 07 at 12:08 am

    Thank you number one topics

  12. Janice Sep 19, 07 at 5:25 pm

    a BIG thank you for posting this!!!!!!!

    New to mac and could not figure out how to do it. You have saved me a lot of head scratching and swearing. lol

    Thanks again!!

  13. seo yarismasi Sep 25, 07 at 7:43 am

    This really helped a lot because everytime I edit some photos it either open up photoshop or graphic converter and it really take some time. Thank you! xoxoxo

  14. paulguise Oct 8, 07 at 11:04 am

    Thanks a bunch for the info. It was a bit annoying getting an error message trying to open a spreadsheet. Thanks for comment by Mark on Always open with which also saved headache.

  15. islam Oct 25, 07 at 11:47 am

    This really helped a lot because everytime I edit some photos it either open up photoshop or graphic converter and it really take some time. Thank you!

  16. wmwebtr ödüllü seo Nov 23, 07 at 11:41 pm

    http://www.bittbox.com/os-x/how-to-set-the-default-program-to-open-a-certain-type-of-file-in-mac-os-x/

  17. Estetik Jan 22, 08 at 6:35 pm

    oh thanks..

  18. McSk8r Feb 1, 08 at 7:19 am

    Tnx man!

  19. Chris Feb 3, 08 at 12:35 am

    Thanks so much for this!!

  20. oz Feb 27, 08 at 2:46 am

    Thank you for this! It has been bothering me for a while.

  21. Kanal Açma Araçlari Mar 5, 08 at 7:11 am

    thanks for this post

  22. Dustyboikc Mar 16, 08 at 2:16 am

    Thanks so much. Super helpful. Was getting frustrated, I couldn’t figure that out on my own.

  23. aSk Blogcu Apr 1, 08 at 5:33 am

    Thank You.

  24. gokhans Apr 7, 08 at 6:49 am

    Thanks..

  25. bilim ve teknoloji Apr 7, 08 at 12:28 pm

    This really helped a lot because everytime I edit some photos it either open up photoshop or graphic converter and it really take some time. Thank you!

  26. mersin emlak Apr 7, 08 at 12:28 pm

    Thanks so much. Super helpful. Was getting frustrated, I couldn’t figure that out on my own.

  27. aladag Apr 7, 08 at 12:29 pm

    Thanks .

  28. eglence Apr 11, 08 at 8:45 am

    thanks very :)

  29. ilahiler Apr 11, 08 at 5:17 pm

    Thank are you berovl

  30. Oyun ?ndir Apr 11, 08 at 5:17 pm

    Thanks çok very one site

  31. Tasarim May 5, 08 at 12:23 pm

    thanks for the info

  32. internet dergisi May 6, 08 at 7:05 am

    thanks congrats nice site.

  33. okulöncesi May 7, 08 at 5:13 pm

    thanks - good work
    okulöncesi

  34. alexo123 May 9, 08 at 1:56 pm

    thank you

  35. Su Aritma Cihazlari May 12, 08 at 1:32 am

    Su Ar?tma Cihazlar?

    thanks for the info

  36. evden eve May 22, 08 at 5:42 am

    Thanks çok very one site

  37. pazarlama May 22, 08 at 9:32 am

    thanks :)

  38. hit May 22, 08 at 9:33 am

    thanks congrats nice site.

  39. matbaa May 22, 08 at 9:34 am

    thanks for the info

  40. zay?flama May 24, 08 at 6:12 am

    Thanks for the info..

  41. zayiflama May 24, 08 at 6:12 am

    thanks

  42. rako Jun 3, 08 at 4:53 pm

    fotokopi, fax

  43. turizm Jun 4, 08 at 7:12 am

    thank you…

  44. pr yuksek blog Jun 4, 08 at 7:20 am

    thanks you :)

  45. istanbul evden eve Jun 6, 08 at 9:27 am

    thanks :)

  46. dwayne Jun 7, 08 at 4:10 pm

    I am having a similar problem. I have Pages installed and everytime I download a word document it opens it with pages and not word for mac. It really wouldnt be a problem but I have word documents that have embedded windows media video clips. Everytime I download one of the documents the review message is indicating certain things have been removed and I believe its the active WM links. I have flip4mac installed and I know other users who have macs and are somehow able to see the embedded WM links in there document

  47. JoeG Jun 9, 08 at 12:34 am

    Yet another one for ya… Thanks dude. I was going nuts. I’ve had a MacBook Pro for almost a year now and been using boot camp and Vista. I took a 30 day “Mac only” challenge and that was my last frustration.

    Still not 100% away from Windows though–Love VMWare Fusion… ;)

    j.

  48. dwayne Jun 9, 08 at 12:44 am

    looks like the problem I had was tied to the browser. I was using Pages and by default Safari associates .doc extensions to Pages. I downloaded netscape and was able to configure Netscape to download and associated .doc extensions to word for mac. Word for mac does not strip the embedded links off as Pages does. This seems to be a fix. Can anyone tell me how to customize Safari to do the same?

  49. internette reklam Jun 9, 08 at 6:19 am

    thanks you

  50. Nightmaru Jun 14, 08 at 12:38 am

    Thanks man, I feel stupid for not knowing how to do this.

  51. bedava video Jun 25, 08 at 5:31 am

    thank you

  52. paylasimburda Jul 10, 08 at 5:26 am

    http://www.paylasimburda.net

  53. ?iir ve güzel sözler Jul 19, 08 at 3:29 am

    Thanks you

  54. ?apkac? Jul 23, 08 at 11:39 pm

    Thanks

  55. Aslan Jul 24, 08 at 7:58 am

    hangi ayr?l?k varki kanas?n ve böyle ac?s?n

  56. Tony C Aug 12, 08 at 4:53 pm

    Thank Youuuuuu!!!!! I was starting to pull my hair out! :D

  57. shan Aug 29, 08 at 3:43 am

    .??thefirstoilpainting?????
    2.??thefirstoilpainting??

  58. shan Aug 29, 08 at 3:44 am

    .??thefirstoilpainting?????
    2.??thefirstoilpainting??

  59. zayflama hap? Sep 5, 08 at 5:47 am

    sdjksdasdkjsadnasdd

  60. brian Oct 14, 08 at 7:44 am

    Change All.

    how simple. I must look for that. I hate when EPS’ open in Preview.

  61. miRC Nov 15, 08 at 2:22 pm

    mirc

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