Open with in spotlight?

Can we get Spotlight to give you an option of opening a found file an application of your choice (without first using Reveal in Finder)?
For instance, having found a .doc file on the drive I want to open it using Pages or TextEdit. Other places you would right-click or ctrl-click it to get an Open with option. In Spotlight you get Open, which on my computer will try to open it with OpenOffice (I don't have Word, or any other Microsucks product for that matter, on my computer) only to fail because I have to install X11 first... If I first Reveal in Finder, I can ctrl-click it there to get open with, but why not have Open With right there next to Open, like you do in other parts of MacOSX?
MacBook 2GHz Core Duo 2 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Having found the document in a Spotlight search right click or CTRL-click to open the contextual menu. In the Open With list there will be an Other option. Select it to find a desired application other than one in the listing.
If you want your files to always open in a specific application then select any document file and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. In the Open With section select your default application from the drop down menu then click on the Change All button. All similar document files will now open in that default application. Normally, OS X associates documents with applications based on the document file's extension - .doc w/Word, .xls w/Excel, etc. The preceding method changes that default association.
For more extensive control over default associations download and install the freeware utility RCDefaultApp (VersionTracker or MacUpdate.)
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Similar Messages

Mac Spotlight Results: Right Click/Open With/Reveal in Finder?

Hi,
As many others, I am a heavy Spotlight user/searcher. I tried quite a bit around, but I seem not to be able to "right click" open with on the Spotlight search results (Spotlight used from the menubar). I can open search results, but that is most of the time not what I wish to do. More commonly, I would like to "Reveal in Finder" or "Open with" (i.e., opening a PDF in Photoshop or Acrobat, not Preview, depends on what needs to be done with it...).
How can I get "right click" on search results enabled? Is there any way to enabled that? If not, how is your workflow to a) find files + b) do something else with them then open with default app?
Thank you for your thoughts!
(p.s. I know that I have the right click option if searching from a Finder window rather than then searching from the menubar, and that I can get the menubar Spotlight open as a Finder Spotlight search result set... however, the results in the Finder menubar are different, and much better, then the what is presented in Finder... so it would be much better to have the right click there)

Thank you, that really helps!
I tried Command + double click and that is exactly what I needed... you can "open with" from Finder then in a second step (one step more then would be logically required, I do hope Apple simply enables right clicks in search results in the next release)

Possible to add "Open With " option to Spotlight?

When I do a search in Spotlight, it brings up a list of files. I do show all, then right click on an item. It shows "open"... "get info"... "reveal in finder"... etc. Is there a way to add an "open with" option, lets say with a plugin or shareware of some sort? Word documents always default to the Microsoft Office Test Drive program, which I do not intend to buy. I want these to default to an older version of Office I have, but it can't be done in Spotlight, and even in "get info", I cannot make a permanent change to have Word documents open with a prior version of Office.
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Matt, is there any reason to keep the Test Drive installed on your machine? If you remove that then I'd think the documents would open with the older version once again.
As far as your actual question goes, I don't know of any way to add an 'open with' function, but on the other hand I don't know my way around Spotlight all that well -

Removing obsolete file type associations from "Open With" menu

Ever since I removed VMWare Fusion 3.x from my system, I've been unable to remove the Bootcamp file type associations that it created. For example, if I right-click on a PDF and choose Open With, this is a partial list of what I see:
Adobe Acrobat Pro (default)
Adobe Distiller (Mac) - Boot Camp partition (VMWare Fusion 3.0.0)
Adobe Fireworks CS4
Adobe Fireworks CS4 (Mac) - Boot Camp partition (VMWare Fusion 3.0.0)
Adobe Illustrator CS4
Adobe Illustrator (Mac) - Boot Camp partition (VMWare Fusion 3.0.0)
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Mac) - Boot Camp partition (VMWare Fusion 3.0.0)
...and on and on and on. 17 additional entries for Fusion for PDS's alone. This junk is driving me crazy.
I've tried rebuilding the Launch Services database with MacPilot and Onyx (the recommended fix that I've found on the web), but the entries still are there even after restarting Finder and rebooting my iMac. I'm at a loss to figure out how to get rid of these.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks!

They are stored in the LaunchServices database. You can give this a try, but no guarantees. If you no longer use VM Fusion then I suggest following the information below on uninstalling software.
Rebuild LaunchServices Database
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
find /System/Library/Frameworks -type f -name "lsregister" -exec {} -kill -seed -r \;
Press RETURN.
Wait for the Terminal prompt to return after which you can quit the Terminal.
Uninstalling Software: The Basics
Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.
Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.
Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.
Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.
Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.
If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, Easy Find, instead. Download Easy Find at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.
There are also several shareware utilities that can uninstall applications:
AppZapper
Automaton
Hazel
CleanApp
Yank
SuperPop
Uninstaller
Spring Cleaning
Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

How to change "Open With" Settings

At work I use a PowerMac to do artwork and such, but I haven't had it long. Before then I had a crappy PC (that thankfully died, so I could convince my boss to get me a PowerMac XD). The boss for a while used CorelDRAW, and a lot of old files are in this format on an external hard drive. Unfortunately for Mac users the file extension is .cdr which is also a disc image format. I want to change the "Open With" settings on all of these files, but I want to be able to double-click on cdr disc images and mount them. Is there some way to do this, someway to get OS X to know that those files aren't disc images but CorelDRAW documents? If it makes it any easier (dunno if it would matter) all of the CorelDRAW documents will always be stored on the external hard drive.

I have about 4 or 5 of them on my desktop right now. OS X by default can mount them, and by default has the cdr extension labeled as a disc image. They're typically used by Toast to clone CDs directly without changing their file structure in any way, especially useful for bootable discs. There's some Windows and UNIX programs that can use them as well.
I've already made the CorelDRAW files easily searchable through Spotlight by inserting metadata, but I was just wondering if there was a way to tell OS X that these aren't disc images, but CorelDRAW files and have them open in Illustrator by default. If there isn't oh well.

"Open with" in mail shows duplicate entries

This seems like a CFBundleRoleType problem of some sort... It happens that if one decides to right-click an attachment in Mail and opt for "open with" sub-menu (something people rarely do, I suppose;) there's a list full of redundant entries. For example: A TIFF image attachment has an infinite list of "Open with" options with things repeating like this:
Safari
Preview
Safari
Safari
Safari
Safari
Preview
Preview
Preview
... and so on. The list contains some programs that are inadequate for this filetype as well.
This _DOES NOT_ happen in Finder though. Finder gives a clean and correct "Open with" list.
My Leopard is a clean install with the previous Tiger installation's data and applications imported and is a week old.

I just noticed this problem in mail as well. Only some of my applications are duplicated. If I run both of the applications that are duplicated then one runs from the normal application folder and the other from the backed up timemachine folder on the external drive.
There seems to be no reason as to which applications are duplicated and which are not - some are Apple applications, some not.
I did notice a lot of unusual activity on my timemachine drive shortly before this happened. Backup was not happening and spotlight was not indexing but someone was reading the drive.

"Open With" CM command opens applications from backup volumes!

I have a couple of backup drives attached to my computer. I use one for Time Machine backups and the other for scheduled Carbon Copy Cloner backups--the old belt and braces approach. Unfortunately, whenever I right click on a file in the Finder and select an application from the "Open With >" submenu, the file always opens in the copy of the application that's on the CCC backup volume--even if the application is already running from the boot volume!
I can understand why it might be desirable to search for applications on attached volumes--some people might not have enough room for all their apps on the boot volume--but I can't fathom why the Finder would look there first! The sensible thing would be to first check and see if the application is already running, and if it's not, look for it on the boot volume, then any attached volumes, then maybe a shared network drive. It just doesn't make any sense to launch another instance of a process that is already running!
Apart from disconnecting my backup drive--which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a scheduled backup task--is there any way to prevent this? I'd prefer to just not ever open applications from attached volumes. Failing that, I'd just like it to make more reasonable decisions, but I haven't found the "don't be stupid" Finder preference yet. Has anybody else run into this and found a fix or workaround?
Message was edited by: David Livesay

Thank you! I never would have suspected that Spotlight had anything to do with this.
If anyone else runs into this, there is one additional thing you might need to do.
Excluding the other volumes from Spotlight will prevent them from being added to the list of possible apps to open, but once they have been used they are also bookmarked in the "Recent Items" preferences. The easiest way to delete them from there is to open System Preferences > Appearance and set Number of recent items > Applications to None. Once you close the pref pane they will be deleted, then you can set it back to whatever it was and it will get repopulated over time.

Help. Need to remove item from the "open with" menu

Does anyone know how I can remove an item from the "open with" menu?

You could try removing the quicktime .pkg files from the receipts folder in the root library.
The system has to go somewhere to determine eligible applications it can use to open a file.
Each application would contain its base settings in its receipts file.
Once you delete the receipt you should delete the application and reinstall it.
The reinstall will write a new receipts file.
The receipts file is used by your system when it repairs disk permissions.
The system does not just add a setting.
For example if you take a .png file and click on it and look at what can open it you may get a long list.
If you choose "other" from the get info "open with" menu and have acrobat reader installed in applications, it will show as an application you can choose.
That application, however, is not in the drop down list.
If you choose acrobat reader and apply it to the file type, it will show as the default.
If you then choose another application in the list and apply, Acrobat Reader disappears from the list.
The system only shows files in the list that advertise to the system that they can read the file type.
You have a system which is populating the list with legitimate programs that are compatible with the advertised file type.
It is reading that advertisement for the quicktime application somewhere.
The configuration is written to each file individually, you can choose to have a single file associated with a particular application or have it apply to all files of that type.
Check in Spotlight for a copy of the application in another location.

"Open With" menu shows multiple versions of apps I don't have installed

So I did an Erase & Install to get Leopard up and running but I did a full system backup to an external drive that I do have connected to my machine.
Right now when I do "Open With" in the contextual menu in Finder it apparently is not only listing the apps installed on my main drive with Leopard, but also the apps on the external drive.
How can I get those apps on the external drive to not show up? I have the drive set to not be indexed by Spotlight.
Here's a screenshot of what I'm referring to:
http://myskitch.com/shpigford/skitched-20071027-154334.png

Known issue, See:
* https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=713014
this issue maybe fixed in beta/ nightly, you should try it
* firefox.com/beta

Paralles and the "open with" menu

Can anyone advise me on how to remove PC applications installed in Parallel
appearing in the "open with" menu within osx.
With most files there is no problem, but using open with in Mail gives a list of
apps and no idea which ones are OSX apps or PC apps.
Thanks in advance

I was under the impression that one reason to use Parallels rather than bootcamp was precisely for that reason, that one can run apps in both systems at the same time.
If a file can be opened with either XP or Leopard apps, then it seems to me both should show up in the "open with" list since they are both available.
With Parallels, XP is just one more app running in Leopard, AFAIK.
If you can exclude Parallels from SpotLight search and then rebuild the data base it might work.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Old Apps appear in Open With list

After backing up my data to another hard drive, erasing the target hard drive and doing a clean install of Leopard, I see that when I option-click a file, then select Open With, the list of applications include the apps on my backup hard drive in addition to the apps I have installed on my main drive.
I told Spotlight to exclude the backup drive but alas, only after indexing of both drives have finished.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can cure this?
Thanks!

There's a registry entry that has to be changed from the previous version of Photoshop you had installed, presumably CS4. Do a search ("Find" using regedit) on the registry for "Photoshop CS4" (or your previous version, if any). Once you find it, change the entry to "Photoshop CS5" -- making sure that the complete pathway to Photoshop CS5 is accurate (correct it if it is not).

"Open With" Keeps opening up applications from backup drive

This has been going on for months and its driving me crazy.
If I right click on a jpeg, click open with photoshop, it opens up the photoshop app on my backup drive and gives a warning message saying the application moved and gives the option to update it even tho i already have photoshop open. It opens up 2 of them.
I dragged the whole applications folder on my backup drive to the spotlight privacy and even tried dragging photoshop itself, but it still opens with the wrong one.
I also rebuilt the framework with the terminal command with no luck.
I tried adding a period to the beginning of the photoshop app name so it would become invisible but it still opens it.
It's getting really annoying and I am out of ideas to fix it.
Can someone please help me!!!
Thanks!

unplug the external and rebuild your launch services database.
run the following terminal command
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
then it won't show the apps on the external even when you plug it in provided you don't open them by hand or don't open the folder containing them in finder.

Is it possible companies store a file on my mac to force their ads on pages opened with Safari?

In the last weeks when surfing with safari on my mac I see the ads for "MacKeeper" appearing unusually often on the pages I visit, even on pages where they don't make much sense (Food or gardening pages for example). To doublecheck I opened the pages with FireFox and then it shows me different ads. Then again I open with Safari to see if it was just a timely matter of changing ads, but Mackeeper stays there. I used to have it installed for trial purpose but then deleted all via "Cleanmymac". anyone know, if there is a way how they could place a file on my mac to force they ads?

Before uninstalling the remains of MacKeeper, please follow the instructions below.
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software -- potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions -- they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are four lines of text in monospaced type, which are actually shell commands -- little programs. They’re harmless, but they must be used exactly as given in order to work.
First and most important, don’t run these commands until you have verified that they’re legitimate. Never execute shell commands from an untrusted source without knowing what they do, or at least that they don’t do anything harmful. I’ve posted these same commands, with minor variations, many times on this site. You should be able to find other discussions in which they were used without ill effects. Do that before proceeding.
Some of the commands will probably line-wrap in your browser, but each one is really just a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
To begin, launch the Terminal application; e.g., by entering the first few letters of its name in a Spotlight search.
Step 1
Copy or drag -- do not type -- the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:
kextstat -kl | awk ' !/apple/ { print $6 $7 } '
Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.)
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|com\.vix|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '
This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.
Step 3
launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '
Step 4
ls -1A {,/}Library/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Sta}* 2> /dev/null
Important: If you synchronize with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address will appear in the output of the above command. Change it to something like “[email protected]” before posting.
Remember, this is all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer -- no typing, except your password.
You can then quit Terminal.

Click "Open with" & most of my appl. appears twice ??

Hy everyone,
Did you ever found such an issue ?
since I've connected two Mac together via FireWire
(Macbook Pro and Imac, both G5 CoreDuo, same System OS 10.4.8)
every single time I'm trying to open a document "with" the menu (right click)
most of my application appears in double.
Computers are no longer connected together since data transfer was achieve succefully in 2 hours.
I can't find a trace of a second Application with the same name on my hard drive...
using seeking tool: Spotlight.
it's like if he was keeping in memory that once he could open the doc with both App (Imac and Mac BookPro)...
illustration with screenshot:
www.digifot.net/perso/screenshot02.jpg
thanks
Laurent.
PowerBook Pro G5 Intel 2.16Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8) french mother language, please go easy on your vocabulary.

ok,
I've download Coktail, it runs in demo Show,
in the help i found
Misc
Rebuild Launch Services database
Launch Services is an API (a set of software functions applications used for accessing services provided by the system) that the Finder relies on to launch applications, open documents, identify the preferred application for opening a document or URL, register information about the kinds of files an application is capable of opening, obtain the icon or update the contents of the Recent Items menu. Launch Services maintains the database in which it records all of the pertinent information. Whenever a new application becomes known to the system (such as when the user drags it from an installation disk into the Applications folder), the application is registered with Launch Services.
Rebuilding the Launch Services database is similar to rebuilding the desktop file in older versions of Mac OS and should correct application associations, remove old or duplicate entries in “Open With” contextual menu and restore default icons. You should restart your computer after rebuilding the Launch Services database to force the Finder and other applications to refresh, doing otherwise may not have the desired effect.
I'm not an expert, this is first time to me to run such utility software,
if I translate the Help paragraph in french, it means nothing to me...
if you could guide me little bit more, it would very nice.
will do my best to follow your instructions.
thks
Laurent.
PowerBook Pro G5 Intel 2.16Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8) frenchy....

"Open with..." backed-up Applications?

When a Time Machine backup disk is attached, Mac OS identifies backed-up copies of applications in "Open with" lists. This is really annoying, is there anyway to get Mac OS to ignore these apps?
Cheers

Make sure that your backup drive is excluded from Spotlight. Also, run the following command in terminal:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Open with in spotlight?

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