Learn how to tell your Mac which app to open a document in.
In this lesson for in macOS Mojave for the Mac, I look at how to open a file using a specific application, such as opening a Microsoft Word document in Pages or a Microsoft Excel document in Numbers. I also show you how to set a document’s default app that it will always open in.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
Introduction: Now, let’s take a look at the different ways we can open up documents with specific applications on the Mac. As an example, if you have an Excel document and you want to open up a Numbers, how do you do that? If you have a Pages document and want to open it up in Microsoft Word, how do you do that? Well, let’s find out. Let’s go to my Mac.
Choosing which App to open a Document with: I’m in my documents folder here. If we look, you’re going to see I have a Microsoft Word document here on the left and an Excel document on the right. If I were to double-click on these, what they would do is they would open up in those respective apps. In other words, I double-click on this document here; it’s going to open up in Microsoft Word. I double-click on this document here; it’s going to open up in Excel. What I would like to do is I would like to open this up in Numbers, or what I want to do is I want to open up my Word document in Pages. How do we do that?
Choosing an App through the Dock: One way is to drag them on top of the application when the app is in the Dock. I have Numbers in the Dock. All I have to do is take this document here and drag it on top of Numbers, and it’ll open up in Numbers. If I take this document here and drag it on top of Pages here, it’ll open up in Pages. That’s one way of doing it. You may have to open up the application first, so it shows in the Dock, and then you can drag any document onto that app. If that app can open it, it’ll open it.
Choosing an App through the Secondary Menu: We can also use our secondary menu. To do that, what we do is we pull up our secondary menu, so I’m going to do a two-finger tap. You can also use a control-click. I’m going to two-finger tap here. You’re going to see open, which means it’ll open it up in the default application, in this case, Microsoft Excel, or what I can do is I can open it with, and then I can select a different application. We can see, by default, it’s going to open it up in Excel here. It even says default. If I wanted to open this up in Numbers, I select Numbers here, and it’ll open up in Numbers.
Let’s take a look at my Word document. I control-click on it or two-finger tap. We have open with the default application that is going to open up, so if I double-click on it, it’s going to open up in Microsoft Word. What I can do is I can, again, select a different app here. In this case, I would select Pages. The secondary menu will show all of the apps that may open up that document.
How about images? Let’s take a look at an image. I have the beach here. If I double-click on this, what app will it open up in? Well, let’s do a two-finger tap. We’re going to see open with. By default, it’s going to open up in Preview. If I wanted to open this up in Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo, all I have to do is select it.
Changing the Default App that a Document opens up in: We can also change the default app now. Let’s say I use Numbers all the time. I do not use Excel. When I download an Excel document, what I would like to do is I would like to have that open up in Numbers all the time, so then I don’t have to use the two-finger tap and go to open with and then go to Numbers. I would like to double-click on it and then have it open up in Numbers.
To do that, what we have to do is we have to pull up our info window. Now, I have it selected here—a couple of different ways to pull up our info window. I can go up to file in the menu bar, and then you’re going to see get info. I can also use the secondary menu. Two-finger tap, get info. I’m going to have a new window that opens up, and we’re going to be able to see all the information about this document. When it was made, when it was modified, what type of file it is, if it’s locked. One of the options here you’re going to see is open with. Let’s go and move this a little bit towards the center here.
I have open with. What do you think we’re going to see when I open this up? It’s going to say it’s going to open it up in Excel. That is why when I double-click on this file here; it’s going to open up in Excel. Now, what I want to do is I want to change this to Numbers. Now, I go and select this, and we go to Numbers. Now, at this point, what it’s going to do is it’s only going to change this one document. If I download another Excel document, it will still open that up in Excel. What I need to do is I need to go to change all. When I click on change all, anytime, I double-click on an Excel file, what it’s going to do is to open it up in Numbers.
Let’s take a look at our Pages document. Control-click, get info. We have our window that opens up, and then we have open with. By default, it’s going to open up in Microsoft Word. If I wanted this specific document to open up in Pages, I would select Pages. If I want all documents, all Microsoft Word documents, to open up in Pages, then what I would do is I would click on change all. Then anytime I download or open up a Microsoft Word document, what it’s going to do is it’s going to open it up in Pages.
That’s how we can open up specific documents in specific apps on the Mac.