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A Perl script to manage file types and creators
Authored by: JohnnyMnemonic on Dec 05, '03 11:00:21AM
You can change the default extension application correspondence from the Get Info window, of course. (Select "Open With", pull down to your preference, then "change all" to set a new default.)

What I suspect that you're asking, though, is how can you do this from the command line? That's a good question. I suspect that it lives in a user preference someplace, as it doesn't require an admin action to perform (I don't believe) but I'm not sure if the changes to default apply system-wide or just to the user. The bigger question--if this is indeed a preference, is it kept in XML in a .plist someplace, or is it in Apple Proprietary code?

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default extension application
Authored by: taran on Dec 05, '03 01:44:51PM
The bigger question--if this is indeed a preference, is it kept in XML in a .plist someplace, or is it in Apple Proprietary code?
This is stored in, e.g., /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/Info.plist. Open this file in your favorite text editor and search for <key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key> (one per extension) or, e.g., <string>txt</string>.

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default extension application
Authored by: hamarkus on Dec 05, '03 08:08:56PM

Looking at that file on my computer it seems that only the file types which are to be opened with TextEdit are stored there. And checking the corresponding file with Acrobat 6.0.1.app shows that the .pdf extension is listed there.

But some carbon applications are not bundles (e.g. Acrobat 5, Word X), so where is it stored for the them?
I have both Acrobat 5 and 6 installed. I set .pdfs to be opened with Acrobat 6, via the Get Info command and apply to all. This did not stick all of the times, with old .pdfs still being opened in Acrobat 5.



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