[X4U] Changing the Default Application

[Doug McNutt]

At 09:02 -0600 3/2/06, Michael Peterson wrote:
>There should be a check box on that dialog that says something along the lines of "Change for all documents of this type".  (I'm not in front of my Mac at the moment).

You'll find that check box. It offers "change this file only" and "change for all files of this type".

"This type" is not well defined but presumably refers to the filename extension and not to an older TYPE set in Classic OS metadata. I'm pretty sure that it does not look inside the file the way the UNIX "file" tool does.

If you choose to change the default for a single file its resource fork, created if it doesn't have one, will grow by some 50 kB to hold copies of the icons for the application you chose.

There is a command line tool which does it the old way. It's not clear how long it will continue to work though as Steve continues the path toward compatibility with UNIX and DOS.

SetFile -t  "XLSB" -c  "XCEL"  "pathToTheFile"

will set the Classic type and creator codes for an Excel workbook and OS neXt, for now, will recognize them the old way. Exactly 4 case-sensitive characters are required for type and creator.

SetFile and GetFileInfo came with the developer tools and reside in /Developer/Tools/. They are independent though and can be installed by themselves.

Someone has surely created an AppleScript that will call the command line tools for you, perhaps with a drag and drop.
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