Category Archives: Snow Leopard
change the default app for a file type
OS X is known for its intuitive and simple way to achieve common user tasks, but one area where it fails is in setting or changing the default app to open a given file type. New OS X users migrating from Windows may find it especially frustrating given the ease with which this can be done in Windows 7 and so on. How, for example, do you make all your video files open with Quicktime instead of VLC by default or pdf files to open with Acrobat instead of Preview?
Here’s the answer:
1. In the Finder, select any file of the given type you want to change.
2. Using the keyboard, press Cmd-i or right-click on the file to display the contextual menu, and chose ‘Get Info’.
3. About 2/3rd of the way down the tall dialogue box, you should see ‘Open with…’ and a menu button. Click on the menu and choose the app you want.
4. After clicking on your preferred app, click the ‘Change All…’ button. This means that not only this file, but all files with the same extension will open with the app you just chose.
5. Press Cmd-w on the keyboard or click the red ‘Close’ button in the top-left corner to close the dialogue box.
secrets of the option key
The option key can be used to access some hidden menus in Apple programs as well as accomplish some common tasks more quickly.
There are two ways the option key can be employed, depending on the app and the menu you’re dealing with. Try holding down the option key and clicking on the volume icon at the top of your screen. Notice how it gives you a menu instead of the volume slider? Having problems with your wifi connection and need some technical information? Try opt and click on the Wi-fi (formerly known as’Airport’) icon. See all that greyed out data about your signal that wasn’t there before?
This will only work if you depress the option key before you click the icon. However, in some Apple menus you can click the menu first, and then pressing or releasing the opt key will change some of the available commands. Many of them are subtle, and the best thing to do is play around and explore for yourself, but let’s just take a look at a couple here.
Start with the Finder menu, and compare the two shots below. The one on the left is the ordinary menu. Notice the ellipsis (the ‘…’ ) in the ‘Empty Trash…’ command?
An ellipsis after a command tells you that clicking on it will not execute the command but take you to another menu or dialogue box. In the case of Trash, as we know, that’s just the confirmation box. Thing is, how many times do you ever click ‘Empty Trash…’ with the intention of saying ‘No’. Well, for me, that’s never, so why waste time having to deal with an unnecessary dialogue box?
Now look at the menu on the right. This is what appears if you hold down the option key either before or after clicking the menu. Notice the ellipsis has gone. That means that clicking ‘Empty Trash’ will execute the command immediately, skipping the confirmation dialogue completely.
OK, now you’ve got the idea, go through all the Finder menus (File, Edit, Window, etc). Alternately press and release the opt key and see how the menus change. You can explore the secrets of the opt key in other Apple apps too, including Safari. One I like there is [Safari] File > Close Tab changes to ‘Close Other Tabs’ with the opt key.
Finally, I posted earlier on how to disable Resume permanently. Remember, you can also use the option key to force the App to forget what you were doing. In any Apple app, just hold down the option key when you click Quit from the App menu, or use the hotkey combination ‘Opt + Cmd + Q‘.
Nice. 🙂
Got any other secret opt-key menus you like? Let us know in the comments!
applehelpwriter.com 