Preview opening all files in folder

Double-click on folders in open dialogue does not open the entire folder contents in most applications! (I just tested a couple standard programs to confirm: Safari, TextEdit.) It is an annoying and unnecessary attribute which seems only applicable in Preview.

The feature of Preview where double-clicking a folder in the open dialogue causes Preview to open the entire folder contents is the bane of my existence as a Mac OS user. (And I do use other operating system, my Mac triple boots.) This behavior is not only inconsistent (and generally confirms that Mac OS X is perpetually confused about what type of mouse actions cause what actions in different areas), but a horrible catastrophe when, at least once a day, I inadvertently double-click a folder (in this manner) containing many files Preview associates with itself, where the only easy solution is to Force Quit. Don't believe me? When Preview starts trying to open 200 post-script files, which it must first convert to pdf, and the Cancel button does not respond, what should you do? Even if you wait for it to open all the files, in the case where conversion to pdf is involved, each window I close asks me if I wish to save!

All the complaints aside, is there a way I can disable this gregariously foolish and mis-sighted feature? If there is not a way to disable this feature at present, I'll just hope that a developer is reading this, since this is my only recourse in closed-source software, except to find new software.

And while I'm at it, may I request that Preview have the added feature to directly view post-scripts?

Probably not, but I'm going to assume you are actually clicking on a particular file you'd like to open, as opposed to double clicking the folder they reside in, right ?

If you double click on the folder, it will open all the files.

Single click on a folder in the Open dialogue in order to display the enclosed files/folders. Works like this in all apps. Similar to the Finder's column view.