can I set "open with" for files - associate file types with a 3rd party app

I have PDF file attachments inside my OmniFocus application. When I double-tap them, they get opened in the standard Apple PDF viewer. But I have a better 3rd-party app which opens PDFs and allows me to edit them (mark them up) - I'd like the attachments to open in this app instead of the normal PDF viewer. I don't want to have to switch to the 3rd party app to open it - it's important to me that I can place comments on many, many PDFs inside of OmniFocus. So:

1) is it possible to ask the iPad to have all PDFs to open in this 3rd party app?
2) if not, is it possible to name the attachments some other extension (e.g., .xyz) and tell it to open all .xyz files with the 3rd-party PDF viewer?

thanks in advance,

Mike

Intel Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Mar 16, 2011 1:00 PM

19 replies

Michael Levin Author

Level 2

221 points

Mar 17, 2011 10:43 AM in response to Demo

ok, getting closer but there's still a puzzle. When I have a link to a file in the cloud (copied from Dropbox) on the iPad, I click it and it fetches the file and displays it. This time, the arrow in the upper right hand corner does work, so it must be opening it in a different way. But: the options are

Open in Safari
Copy URL
Mail Link

it's as if it's dealing with the link still, not the document, and it won't give me a choice of other apps!

Demo

Level 10

166,747 points

Mar 17, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Michael Levin

I think because you are sending the link itself and not the PDF file. If you were sending the actual PDF file through Dropbox to the iPad, then it should give you the other options when you hold down on it. Keep in mind, I know nothing about how Dropbox works and what you can actually send in terms of file types, to the iPad.

Michael Levin Author

Level 2

221 points

Mar 16, 2011 1:59 PM in response to Demo

Demo wrote:
Hold down on the file - don't tap. Hold down and the open in box pops up

nope! I'm seeing that holding down brings up the "delete" option only!

Mar 16, 2011 5:40 PM in response to Michael Levin

PDF open in, using the GoodReader app:

PDF as an attachment, open in:

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can I set "open with" for files - associate file types with a 3rd party app