After installing Mountain Lion the file association for MS document types (.xls, .doc, ppt, .xlsx, .docx, pptx) have been changed to use the Apple Products (Numbers, Keynote, Pages) and the system wont allow me to change the associations to my preferred settings. I have uninstalled the sample versions of Numbers, Keynote and Pages. to no avail. Any suggestions?
I use Open Office and MS office products in a VM.
Thanks
Chris
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion
By association you mean the default Application? How are you trying to change the default application?
Choose any of those documents and then "Get Info" cmd-i. In the "Open with" pane select the application you want to use as default. Then click on "Change all".
Thanks for reply Macjack,
I am using the technique you describe and have done so many times in the past 8 years.
When I try to make the change now I (as decribed above) I change the default program for an .XLS file from "Numbers" to "Open Office" but the selection does not hold and switches immediately back to "Numbers".
I have tried it many times on each of the different MS file types.
No Joy.
Thanks
Chris
It may be LaunchServices. These are only cache files but can get corrupted. Launch /Utilities/Terminal and copy & paste this at the command line to rebuild LaunchServices: (be sure to copy the entire line it's a slider)
Code:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Then press return. Wait until terminal returns to the command line. Quit Terminal. After that, log out and back in or restart. Let us know.
Or, use thefree utiltiy OnyX to do the same via gui
Hi 🙂
I have just installed ML, and Open Office.
I have exactly the same problem as described here, and have done what macjack wrote.
Also I installed OnyX, but still the problem is there 😕
Any ideas what I should do now?
Kind regards
Maclone
macjack is correct but the answer needs a bit more emphasis at that last step in that after the default app is shown to be the wrong one, when you go to change it a separate window opens with more choices to select as the default.
After you pick the default app and check the box to make it the default app and then close the window with "Add" (or whatever it says) you go back to the get-info window/pop-up you must select the "Change All" button.
Bear in mind that change all will affect all the files in your system meeting the file identification spec (likely the extension)... even those you want to open with a different app. Meaning, (for example) if you wanted .xls to open with Excel instead of Numbers or OO's Calc will open with whatever app you change all'd them to, so you have to go back to each one and set it to Excel.
The above was discovered after I moved my files to 10.8 (ML) from 10.7.
Message was edited by: Reinie to include applicable OS version.
This solved my problem of textedit not launching when double-clicking .txt files. (I did not have to log out or restart.)
macjack
It may be LaunchServices. These are only cache files but can get corrupted. Launch /Utilities/Terminal and copy & paste this at the command line to rebuild LaunchServices: (be sure to copy the entire line it's a slider)
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Then press return. Wait until terminal returns to the command line. Quit Terminal. After that, log out and back in or restart. Let us know.
File associations can be changed
