It’s really easy to change the default file type--just click on one of the files, and choose File –> Get Info from the main menu, or use the Cmd+I shortcut Changing a Specific File to Open in a Different Application. If you just want to change that one file, you can bring up the context menu with a right. How to change the default application to open a file on your Mac? This guide will show you how to solve the problem. Locate and click on the Open with and choose the app you want to use as the default from drop-down menu. How to Change Default Mac App for Specific File Type – Step 3.
By. 6:00 am, August 19, 2013. In OS X, all file types have a default application that opens when you double click on them. If you double click on a PDF file or a PNG file, chances are that your Mac will open it in Preview, Apple’s default PDF and image file app. If you’ve given an app like Adobe Reader, for example, permission to set itself as the default PDF app, then all PDFs will open in Reader.
Over time, you may have set apps as default that you no longer want to open your files. Conversely, you might want all JPG files to open in Preview, except one specific JPG file, which you’d like to open in Photoshop. Here’s how to make both of these situations work for you. First up, to change the default app across all documents of a give file type, simply click on a file of that type, say, a PDF file.
Then right-click on that file (or Control-click, if you like) and choose Get Info from the resulting contextual menu. Look toward the bottom of the Information window that will open up, and find the section that says “Open With:” Click on the little triangle next to this section, or, if it’s already open, choose the app you’d like to set as that file type’s default from the pop up menu. Then, click on the Change All button below that area, and from then on, all files of that type will attempt to open in the app you chose when you double click. Now, if you’d like to open a specific file in a specific app, overriding the default app, simply right-click on the file, and then hit the Option key on your keyboard. The Open With contextual menu item will then change to “Always Open With,” and allow you to choose which Application you’d like to use to open this file with, all the time, no matter what the default app is set to.
Changing the Default Application for File Types in OS X It’s really easy to change the default application a type of file opens in. Just click on one of the files and choose File Get Info from the main menu or use the Cmd+I keyboard shortcut. You can also right-click, Ctrl-click, or two-finger clicking the file and select “Get Info”.
Once that dialog shows up, you can head down the “Open With” section, change it to the application you’d prefer, and then click “Change All”. You should see a prompt verifying you really want to do it, where you’d click “Continue”. That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Changing a Specific File to Open in a Different Application If you just want to change that one file, you can bring up the context menu by right-clicking, Control-clicking, or two-finger clicking the file. Choose Open With – Other. Select the application you want to change it to, and then click the “Always Open With” box. Click “Open” and that individual file will always open with the application you chose in the future. Note: If you’re trying to play a file off a read-only network share, you won’t be able to do this.
You’ll have to copy a file to your Mac’s local storage to make the change, or otherwise you’ll get this error message: And there you go, now you can open your video files in VLC instead of QuickTime.