Fetch Help > Using Fetch > Changing the application a file opens with

When you download files from a server to your Macintosh, normally each kind of file is assigned an application that it will open in. Fetch provides reasonable defaults based on the Mac OS settings for the common kinds of files, but also provides a way to change which application a specific kind of file will open in.

Fetch decides which application to assign to a downloaded file by its extension — the part of the filename at the end after a period, such as ".txt" or ".jpg" . The application a certain kind of file will open in is called the preferred application for that kind of file. Fetch also uses the preferred application to determine the appropriate icon to display for each kind of file in the file list of transfer windows.

To set the preferred application for a kind of file, use the Transfer Options pane of the info window:

1. Connect to your server, and find a file with the extension whose preferred application you want to change. You may need to upload an example file if you do not know where one is located.
2. Select the file.
3. Click the Get Info button, or choose Remote > Get Info .
4. Click the disclosure triangle next to the Transfer Options label at the bottom of the info window to display the Transfer Options pane, if it's not already displayed.
5. Click the pop-up menu labeled "Open files like this with"
6. Choose an application from the menu, or if the desired application is not listed, choose the Other item and select the desired application.

From now on, any downloaded file with the same extension as the file whose transfer options you just changed will open in the newly selected application when you double-click it in the Finder. Also, the icon displayed for that kind of file in the transfer window will update to reflect the new choice of application.

Note that changing the preferred application in Fetch only affects files downloaded by Fetch, not all files of that kind on your Macintosh. Use the Finder's Get Info command to change the applications all files will open with in the Finder. Also, changing the preferred application for opening the file does not change the application used for editing a file.

If files have been encoded in a special format that preserves Macintosh information, such as BinHex, MacBinary, or AppleSingle, the decoded files will open in the application originally specified for those files when they were uploaded. If that setting was different on the computer that uploaded those files than on yours, they may not open in the application you expect.

You can also use the Transfer Options pane of the info window to tell Fetch to open certain kinds of files automatically after they've been downloaded, to automatically edit files instead of downloading them, and change the application that does the editing. See the Transfer Options help topic for more information.

Related topics:

- Get Info
- Info window
- Download Preferences
- File list