setting default options for the Mac

Question

Level 1

113 points

setting default options for the Mac

Dear Friends,

When I click to open an image file directly from my hard drive, I want to control which software the Operating System chooses.

e.g. If the image is a jpeg, I might want to open it in "Preview" or possibly in Adobe Software.

A friend today has a new laptop running El Capitan and when she double-clicks on an image in the Finder screen, it is choosing an odd application to open it in.

Where is the control to set default applications used by the Finder?

Thanks for your help.

Mary Lou Frost

MacBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Mar 12, 2016 10:25 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mary Frost Author

Level 1

113 points

Mar 12, 2016 12:08 PM in response to Duane

I am currently on an older iMac which I have left at 10.6.8 in order to open some old Appleworks files. My laptop runs OS 10/9.1 currently.

On 10.6.8 this is the screen shot of what I get when I control/click on a file to set the default application.

I will go to my laptop and see if it is different.

Reply

Answer 2

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 12, 2016 4:26 PM in response to Mary Frost

Mary Frost wrote:

Sorry for the typo.

My laptop is running on Maverick

My iMac is running Snow Leopard.

Mary Lou

Good news then! The recommendation above is applicable to Snow Leopard

and Mavericks

Reply

Answer 3

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 12, 2016 10:33 AM in response to Mary Frost

Control-click on the file
Select "Get info" from the drop down menu
Under "Open with:" select the application which you want to open that file
If you want all files of that type, click the "Change all..." button

http://www.cultofmac.com/241165/how-to-change-the-default-app-for-specific-files -or-file-types-os-x-tips/

Niel types faster than me. 🙂

Reply

Answer 4

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 12, 2016 5:28 PM in response to Mary Frost

Mary Frost wrote:

OK. Where do I go to get the windows you show above?

ML

As mentioned above:

Control-click on the file
Select "Get info" from the drop down menu

Reply

Answer 5

Mary Frost Author

Level 1

113 points

Mar 12, 2016 10:43 AM in response to Niel

This is alot of work if one needs to do it everytime you go to open such a file. I want to set the "default" used by the OS so that every time I double-click on such a file, the same software opens it.

Mary Lou

Reply

Answer 6

Mary Frost Author

Level 1

113 points

Mar 12, 2016 10:44 AM in response to Duane

This is more like what I want but it appears that the option "Change All" is not available in some versions of OS.

I keep thinking that their should be some System Preferences which allow one to designate default applications.

Is there?

Mary Lou

Reply

Answer 7

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 12, 2016 11:00 AM in response to Mary Frost

Which versions of Mac OS are you referring to? It has been in every version that I have used.

There is an old preference pane that allows you to edit the default selections. RCDefaultApp (http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/) hasn't been updated recently.

Reply

Answer 8

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 12, 2016 12:11 PM in response to Mary Frost

Mary Frost wrote:

Is this a separate application found at rubicode? Isn't there something built into the OS which allows one to choose default applications?

Mary Lou

Yes

Yes, through the Finder as described above.

Reply

Answer 9

Mary Frost Author

Level 1

113 points

Mar 12, 2016 6:55 PM in response to Duane

On my laptop running Mavericks it worked as you described. I will go back to my older iMac running Snow Leopard and try it there.

I'm sorry for all the work I put you through.

I can now teach this to others who ask me this question.

Mary Lou

Reply

Answer 10

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,293 points

Mar 20, 2016 9:57 AM in response to Mary Frost

Mary Frost wrote:

Sorry for the typo.

My laptop is running on Maverick

My iMac is running Snow Leopard.

Mary Lou

If and when you upgrade your iMac, consider partitioning your internal hard drive or adding an external drive and install the upgraded OS X there. In this way, you can "dual-boot" (Option-Restart) to choose which flavor of OS X you boot into and return to Snow Leopard as needed.

If you upgrade OS X over Snow Leopard, you will destroy it.

Reply

Answer 11

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,293 points

Mar 20, 2016 11:57 AM in response to Mary Frost

Yes, this became a common recommendation after Lion was released in 2011 and many Snow Leopard users updated to Lion and discovered to their surprise that Lion no longer included Rosetta, the transparent software that allows Intel Macs to continue to run PowerPC software.

Of course this is not available to purchasers of more modern Macs that cannot boot and run Snow Leopard. In their situation, they must look to running Snow Leopard Server in virtualization, such as Parallels, to obtain access to Rosetta in a modern Mac world.

Reply