The most common method of opening a file is to double-click on it, right? Well what happens when you double click on your file, and it opens in the wrong program, or won’t open at all?
Here’s a real-world example. You have Microsoft Excel installed on your Mac, but you have Apple’s iWork installed as well. Someone sends you a spreadsheet file in .xls format, and when you double-click on it, it opens in Numbers. Uh-oh, you don’t know how to use Numbers. You were expecting it to open in Excel. Oh the injustice!
I’ve seen this happen quite often. Adobe .pdf files can open in Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, or Apple’s Preview. Microsoft Word files can open in Pages, which is great, if that’s what you want.
Sometimes it gets even weirder. I’ve had Adobe Air files open in Waveburner, which is a pro audio application. That didn’t make sense at all.
Here’s how to fix this.
To select the default application for a particular file type, click on any file once to highlight it, and then press ⌘ and I at the same time or go to File>Get Info.
From the resulting Info box, click on the Triangle next to Open With to view the Open With dialog section.
Click on the Open with Drop-down menu, and select the appropriate application from the list.
If your desired default application is not listed, click on Other. You’ll be able to select your program. Once you’ve selected your program, click on Change All.
Your Mac will now use your selected program the next time you double-click on this type of file.
Thanks for reading!
~ Chris
