How to Change File Association in OS X

Monday, December 11th, 2006 | Tips

Info Window Have you every had a file open up in a wrong program? Or have you every wanted to change the program which opens a particular file? Most files open in the program that created them. Nevertheless, there are files that can be opened in a variety of programs. For example, a text file can be opened in TextEdit, Microsoft Word or Pages. How do you make sure that a text file opens in the same program all the time?

Here’s how its done. Select the file that you want to open in a program different from the current default. Press command symbol -I to activate the Info window. One of the sections in this window is “Open with.” If this section is not expanded, click on the arrow next to the title to expand the section. Once expanded you will see a drop-down box with a list of programs. Select the program you would like to use to open this type of file. From this moment on that file type will be opened in the selected program by default.

Now, remember that this applies to all files of the same type. So, the change you make in the Info window will not only affect the selected file, but all files of the same type. For example, if you selected a text file, then all text files will open in the program that you’ve specified in the “Open with” section.

This may be especially useful for those who work with text data files that need to be opened by Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet or database programs.