Spotlight doesn't open images in preview but in iphoto

Question

Spotlight doesn't open images in preview but in iphoto

After I upgraded to Snow Leopard, whenever I search for a photo file in spotlight that it is inside the iphoto library, and I select it from the spotlight menu search results, it will open iphoto instead of preview. How can I make spotlight to open always images on Preview??
Thanks

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 12, 2009 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Sep 12, 2009 7:56 AM in response to gferreroferri

why are you searching iphoto library from spotlight? it should be done from inside iphoto. how are you making spotlight search there anyway? that's not so easy to do because iphoto library is a package and spotlight normally doesn't search there.

as for your main issue check the default application set to open image files. select one in finder and enter command+i. in the resulting popup go to the "open with" section and set it to open with Preview. then click "change all".

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Answer 2

Sep 12, 2009 2:22 PM in response to V.K.

I have a pic called BankCodes.jpg in iPhoto. I search for it in Spotlight and when it finds it and I select it, spotlight will launch iPhoto. This happens in Snow Leopard. In Leopard it would open it with Preview command. I did try the Command+i and set Preview as the default for all, but still Spotlight opens it with iphoto!

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Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Sep 12, 2009 3:05 PM in response to gferreroferri

hmm, I see the same thing when I test this. I see no workaround for this one.

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Answer 4

Nov 7, 2009 4:39 PM in response to gferreroferri

It sounds like you've been doing the search in the menubar Spotlight field. If so, here are two things to try:

One, when you have located the image you think you want to open, hit Command-Return, which will open (in a new Finder window) the folder in which the image file is located, even if it is inside your iPhoto library. The default application for opening the image then should be Preview (it is for me).

Two, select "Show All" at the top of the results, which opens a Finder search window. An image file in the resulting list, even if it is inside the iPhoto package, will open by default in Preview (That's what it does for me.)

Hope this helps.

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