#MAC CHANGE DEFAULT APP FOR NO EXTENSION FULL#
#MAC CHANGE DEFAULT APP FOR NO EXTENSION MAC#
#MAC CHANGE DEFAULT APP FOR NO EXTENSION WINDOWS#

Type open, then a space, then drag the file onto the Terminal window. There’s a quicker way to do this, if you can see the file in the Finder. Your command should look like this: open /Users/kirk/Documents/My Folder/My File

#MAC CHANGE DEFAULT APP FOR NO EXTENSION FULL#

Just type the open command, followed by a space then the full path to the file, then press Return. If you use the command line, you probably already know that you can open files in the Terminal app. You can also select a file and choose File > Open With to access the same sub-menu. This is the best way to open a file with an app other than the one that opens its file type by default. The former lets you open the file with the app associated with its file type, and the latter displays a sub-menu containing all the apps that can open that file. If you right-click a file in the Finder, you’ll see two menu items: Open and Open With. This will show the name of the app that is assigned to open that file type, and it will say, for example, Open With Preview. If you then want to open the file, you can click the Open With… button at the top of the preview window. If you select a file in the Finder then press the Space bar, you’ll see a preview of the file. If you have added files to () (or the bottom, if you position the Dock on either side of your screen), a single click will open that file.Īnd if you have folders in that part of the Dock, click and hold a folder icon to see a list of the files it contains. If you want to display a file you’ve found in Spotlight, press Command-Return, and a new Finder window opens with that file highlighted. Just use the arrow keys to select a file and press Return, or double-click it. You can use Spotlight to search for files - by their name, or even by keywords in their content - and open them from the results. The difference between this and the Open Recent menu in apps is that this menu shows recently opened files from all apps, whereas each app also has its own Open Recent menu that only shows its own files. As above, you can control how many items display in this menu in the General preferences. Select a file from the Documents section, and it opens in its assigned app. If you choose the Apple menu, then Recent Items, you’ll see a list of recent apps, documents, and servers. As above, this menu only contains a limited number of files. If you click and hold an app icon in your Mac’s Dock, you’ll see that there’s a menu showing recent items, if the app can open files. You can adjust this number in System Preferences > General, by selecting the Recent Items menu at the bottom of the pane and choosing a number from none to 50. Note that this menu only stores a limited number of files. Choose File > Open Recent, then select the file. If you’ve worked on a file in a specific app, you can re-open it from that app’s Open Recent menu. If you want to view a file when you’re in an Open dialog, you can select and it press the space bar to view it in Quick Look. Just press Command-O in your app, navigate to the file, select it, and click Open or press Return.

#MAC CHANGE DEFAULT APP FOR NO EXTENSION MAC#

Open any File from an Open DialogĪs discussed in a recent article on The Mac Security Blog about using the Open and Save dialogs, you can open any file from an app’s Open dialog (if that app supports the file type). You can also press Command-O to open a selected file. As with double-clicking, the file opens with the app its file type is associated with. Select a file in a Finder window or on the Desktop, and press Command-down-arrow.

You can also open a file from the keyboard.

If that app can open the file, the icon will highlight, and when you drop the file the app will launch (if it’s not already running) and display the file. You can open a file by dragging it onto an app icon, either in a Finder window, or in the Dock. If you receive a file as an attachment to an email, you can open it by double-clicking it, as you would a file in the Finder. Only one app can open each file type when you double-click it, but as you’ll see below, you can open files with other apps, and you can change the default app that opens a given file type. By default, it opens with the application that is assigned to work with its file type so, if you have Microsoft Office on your Mac, a.

#MAC CHANGE DEFAULT APP FOR NO EXTENSION WINDOWS#

The basic way to open a file on the Mac - and on Windows as well - is to double-click a file. Here are a dozen ways you can open files on a Mac. You can open files in windows, from menus, and from dialogs. But did you know that there are lots of different ways to open files? You can use your mouse, your trackpad, or even your keyboard. You open files every time you work on your Mac, most often, probably, by double-clicking them.

Mac change default app for no extension