The Finder's association of files and programs is messed up...

Hey everyone. A few days ago, after I woke up the computer from a sleep, everything stopped being able to open its own files through drag and drop to its dock icon. There are all kinds of strange phenomena like:
— JPEGs now launch Illustrator
— Textedit wouldn't open RTF files it created
— Preview won't open anything
— Can't drop PDFs onto iTunes (major hassle as I organize all my PDFs in iTunes)
I can't seem to fix things by using the trick of opening a file, associating it with a program, clicking "Change All.." The programs are no longer "recommended programs for that file type." I can select "all applications" and re-associate the files with the application I want to open them (RTFs should open with Textedit for example) but the fix doesn't work.
I am guessing that something is really messed up in some table in the Finder that associates filetypes and applications. Anyone know how to rebuild it? Thanks so much!

hi, this has been a nuisance for many years. It happens to me all the time, because I don't keep all my apps in the Applications folder in the main hard drive. I have 4 external drives, and keep my stuff 'logically' arranged with graphics apps and vector clipart, for example on one drive together. I then keep 3d apps with associated stuff on another drive, I keep movie and animation apps on another drive, and so on. The association works for a few days, or weeks, and then ultimately fails. I then just 'Get Info' reset the association the way I want, and tell the 'Get Info' window to 'Apply to All'. It's a pain in the neck, but I am so used to it by now - I assume I know what causes it, but I refuse to put all my apps together in one place. So I live with it. I do believe it's something Apple could fix, but it's hardly mission critical, so I guess they never will.

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