On a PC, I know how to go into the Settings file and choose what program will open a given type of file. Is there an analgous function on a Mac?
In particular, I use Photoshop almost exclusively - but if I click on a image file from the desktop, the computer automatically opens it in Quicktime’s PictureViewer. This is intensely annoying, as it means that I have to individually open pictures from within Photoshop, rather than selecting and opening a whole bunch from the desktop.
I’m running OS9 (sorry), and Photoshop 5.5. I know - I’m a dinosaur - but I hate updating/relearning programs and so I’m just going with these until I get a new computer (soon, probably).
I use Photoshop 5.5 too (to cheap to upgrade) I thought it was a preference within PS/QT, but its not. I don’t have a full compliment of OS-9 control panels, since I do use OS-X most of the time.
Have you wandered through your control panels to see if there’s something there?
Simple, from the Finder you just open the File Info for one, go down to Open with, and …
OS 9!!
Okay, that’s a little hazy but I don’t think there’s a way to do it globally. Each file has its own associated Creator code, and that’s what tells the Finder which program to use to open it when double-clicking.
For individual files, you can change the Creator code with ResEdit (or sometimes by opening and saving the file within the app using it), and possibly there’s a way to do it for a batch (maybe using Applescript) or another resource fork editing program.
If this is no good, you should try and see if you can find the program ‘Open with …’ (I think that’s what it’s called) which works about as well as the current implementation on OS X and lets you select which program to use to open it with a contextual menu (not great, but it’s a useful app to have).
If you can’t find it, I hopefully have a copy on my old 6500. I say hopefully because I just crammed the guts into a 6100 case, and after spending all my time getting it to work, I promptly dropped it on the floor when carrying it back to my room. I’m a little afraid to turn it on now.
The best way I know – although I’d be surprised if there isn’t a better way – is to Control+click on the file you want to open. It will provide you with the “Open With…” option.
N9IWP has the best solution for existing images, but what you’re describing is supposed to be a FEATURE.
The idea is that, unlike Windows, a document will open by default in whatever application created it, even if there are multiple applications that can support that type of file. This is usually what you want, and I have long lamented the fact that Windows can’t do it. For example, create a NEW file on the desktop using PhotoShop, then double-click it, and you’ll notice that it opens in PhotoShop rather than QuickTime.
The problem you’ve run into is that you probably didn’t create those files at all, and they were probably not created on a Mac. So the download program you use (Internet Explorer or whatever) assigns something more or less at random, usually QuickTime Player for multimedia files. This is a pretty common thing to want to change, so if you look around in the download program’s options, you’ll be able to find a way to change the default creator code for the one you want. I don’t have a copy of Photoshop on a system that old, so I don’t know what the creator code for it is, but you can find out using a variety of tools (including the Get Info in the finder, I think).
The other option, if you can’t find the download preference, or the files are coming in by disk or somesuch, is to batch changethem. Google “FileTyper batch creator” for an (old) shareware app that will let you change them all at once.
I still use OS 9 sometimes, and I know how to to do these things. (I used MacOS 8 before that, and System 7 before that, and on).
Here’s whatcha do: download and install the Open With Package, which will give you a Windows / OSX -style “Open With” contextual menu item when you right-click any file. It will be a smart list, displaying applications that a) you actually have that b) are appropriate for that file type. Click-and-hold on a JPEG file, then pick “Photoshop” from the list of appropriate apps. (This won’t change the file type of the selected file, it doesn’t do anything permanent to the file, it just tells the OS to open that file with the app you tell it to use)
Another useful approach under OS9 is Snitch. Snitch turns the Get Info windows into something more useful, where you can quickly edit the File Type and File Creator codes of any file, and which comes with an editable dropdown value list of common codes so you can make a given JPEG file a Photoshop JPEG file with a Command-I and a quick click.
Yet another useful approach: FinderPop, in addition to the totally cool trick of transforming any volume or folder into a hierarchical menu of its contents when you click on 'em, adds several contextual menu items, one of which is to set any selected file to a combined File Type / File Creator value of your choosing. For example, click-and-hold on a JPEG file and select “Set File Type” and out pops choices, one of which is “Photoshop / JPEG”. Pick it and you’re all set.
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. This problem is annoying me to no end.
picunurse, I’ve tried every control panel I could think of. N9IWP, I tried the drag and drop thing, but it doesn’t work - nothing happens. Moonchild I’ve tried every possible combination of control, apple, and option keys while left or right clicking, but the only menu that appears includes “Open” but not “Open With”.
TimeWinder (cool name), you’re exactly right that these were pictures created on a Windows machine. I’m taking pictures of embryos from a microscope camera that has Windows software, then bringing the pictures over to my Mac to crop, clean up, and assemble into publishable figures. The problem is, a single figure may have 40-50 embryos pictures, so opening them each individually is a huge time waster. Once they’ve been opened and worked with in Photoshop, they re-open automatically in Photoshop, but by that time I’ve got them all in a single Photoshop file anyways. Obviously, the Windows machine is just assigning a .jpeg to the files and my Mac is interpreting that as Quicktime.
AHunter3 and panamajack, I think you’re talking about the same “Open with …” program. Thanks for the tip. I’m going to go download it and see what happens. I’ll report back.
I down loaded and ran the “Open with…” program. It does give me the option of opening jpeg files with a variety of programs, so it appears to be working properly. However, it does not and will not include Photoshop on the list of available programs for opening .jpegs or .psd files. Among the actual image software options, it offers Quicktime PictureViewer (arrgh!), Adobe Illustrator, and something called Adobe ImageReady, which seems to be a Photoshop variant with a lot of bells and whistles and without some of the functions I need (color correction, anyone?).
The OS X contextual menu (Ctrl-click or second button-click) does give you the option of opening the file with any app, but you’re right, it isn’t there in OS 9. The one AHunter3 linked to is the same one I was talking about.
Now that I think about it, wasn’t multiple file selection supported by the File Open dialog by the time of OS 9? I don’t know for sure, and I don’t know if Photoshop used the standard routine.
If you do a File-Open in Photoshop, can you Cmd-click or Shift-click files in the same folder (i.e. the Desktop)? You may not want to open all the files at once, though, so maybe it’s not the best solution.
I’ve occasionally (not often) had relevant applications refuse to “register” themselves with “Open With Application” as capable of opening file types that they damn well can open.
Try Snitch or FinderPop. Unless you specifically want to avoid permanently assigning your jpeg files to Photoshop, that ought to do you. Here is what the Get Info window looks like when modified by Snitch. This JPEG is currently set to GraphicConverter (GKON) but I can turn it into a Photoshop JPEG simply via dropdown menu, as shown in screenshot. Hereis how you edit the Creator codes in the list to include the string “8BIM” which is Photoshop, if it’s not already “known” by default.
FinderPop’s Set File Type CM addition lets you right-click and turn a file, any file, into a specified file type / creator code combo. It can get more cumbersome if you work with a wide range of file types and applications but aside from that it’s pretty nice. To add a given file type /creator to the list of available options, you just obtain one example file of the type and creator you want, NAME that file something like “Photoshop JPEG file”, and then put it here. (The hierarchical view shown here is the main feature of FinderPop, this is what FinderPop really does for a living).
Just downloaded Snitch, it works okay within its limits. I can get it to reassign files to Photoshop (Hail Mary!) permenently, however it requires changing the setting in each file’s “Get Info” screen. As I currently have 1200+ files in my database, I’m going to keep looking for something better.
I’ll try FinderPop later tonight. Right now I have to get some, you know, data, to take pictures of or something. Not that I’m not being terrribly productive surfing Straight Dope.
Thanks for all of the ideas AHunter3 and panamajack. I’ll keep updating my trials and tribulations. Do either of you have any idea if you can force “Open with” to acknowledge Photoshop?
When you run the application, does it give you separate progress bars for all your mounted volumes? Do the progress bars make it to the end before quitting?
One possibility: don’t know what version# of Photoshop you’re running but if you have an older or newer copy it may be worth installing just long enough to get Open With to snag the existence of that app. I know Photoshop 3 is Open-With compatible, for instance.
Unless I’m mistaken, wouldn’t rebuilding the Desktop actually help here? I thought that the file type/creator database gets fixed when you do this. In fact, that may be the primary purpose of it.
If you haven’t done it recently, I’d try doing that now, mischievous. (Restart and hold down OPT+CMD). Then try a drag & drop, or Open With again. If you run Open With, be sure to re-index applications within the Open With program.
Some of what you’re describing sounds like you may benefit from rebuilding the desktop. Not having the Open with… recognise Photoshop as a valid app for jpegs certainly sounds like it, as does Photoshop not opening files that are dragged to the app or its alias.
I used to use FileTyper when I used OS9 and earlier. It allows one to create drop boxes that will find and change various bits of info for particular types of files. What I mean is that you set the conditions that it looks for and then change part or all of the info for the file.
Use it to check all files for type JPEG and change creator code to whatever the Photoshop type is. Once you have the drop box as a desktop icon, you just drop any files you want changed on to it. If it checks for JPEG files, and you’ve set FileTyper to check inside folders, you can drop a whole folder on the icon and it will change only the jpegs and leave any other kind as they are.
I used to use it in much this way to change all graphics files to Graphic Converter creator.
Um, can anyone enlighten me on what “rebuilding the desktop” means or how I might do it? Is it something I might conceivably mess up and destroy my computer?
Restart and hold down Option and Command during startup. You’ll get a message saying “Are you sure you want to rebuild the desktop on xxx ?” and say yes to that. This will, IIRC, fix the file database, repair any broken icons, or other stuff that’s screwed up with the way the Finder works with files. It hardly presents any danger to the files themselves. ( Though your backup solution ought to be painless enough that it never hurts to do one. )
This is something that should be done periodically with OS 9. It sounds as if you haven’ t done it, and is the most likely reason for the problems. It won’t fix your primary concern - changing file types, but will allow things like drag & drop and Open With to work.
For more, do a Mac Help search on “rebuild desktop”.
I can drag and drop! I can drag and drop! You guys are SO cool!
So, um, how often should I have been doing this “rebuild desktop” thing? Does it apply to OSX, too, when I upgrade?
I think I’m going to stick with the drag and drop option, rather than further exploring the potential for global file renaming. That way if I want a quick look I can just click on the pics and they will open in PictureViewer (which is MUCH faster) or if I’m manipulating them I can drag a bunch over to Photoshop. However, I’m going to bookmark this thread for all the good advice you’ve all given me, in case I need it again. Thanks, all!
mischievous
P.S. “Open With” still doesn’t recognize Photoshop. Gah.
