Open Files with — you choose
Mac Tip #334, 16 April 2008
Sometimes I want to open .html files with my text software so I can edit them. Other times I want to open them into a web browser so I can view them.
Or it may be that I want to choose either Keynote or Powerpoint to open a .ppt file. Or perhaps Pages or MS Word to open a .doc file, Preview or Adobe Reader for a PDF — the list of combinations of file types and software can be very long.
It’s quite common really to want to choose, moment by moment, which application you’ll use to open a particular file.
Of course you can set certain file types to always open with a particular application. I explained how in I’ll open that, Mac Tip #179/19-Jan-2005.
Half a dozen possibilities for opening a photo in jpg format.
But if you want to override that choice and choose a different application to open a file, then you need a different approach. Here are some possibilities:
- Drag the file onto the icon of the application you want to use — in the Finder or in the Dock.
- Open the application, choose Open from the File menu, then select the file to open.
- In the Finder, Right Click or Control Click on the file and choose Open With from the contextual menu that appears. A sub-menu displays some possible applications that may open the file, or choose Other… to bring up a dialog box where you can select an application.
My screenshot shows half a dozen possibilities for opening a photo in jpg format.
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* 2 comments… read them below and tell us what you think.
I find a great way of doing this is from inside a terminal window using the “open” command:
To open a file with the default application:
# open /tmp/file.html
To open a file for editing with TextEdit:
# open -e /tmp/file.html
To open a file with a specific application:
# open -a textmate /tmp/file.html
Adam.
Thanks Adam. It’s always good to know about these additional techniques.
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