Note: If you don’t see the Enable or Always Open With box, click the Options button on the bottom left corner and they will display. Then pick your application and click Open.Ĥ) Mark the checkbox below Enable for Always Open With. If the app you want is grayed out at the top, choose All Applications in this box. Or, click File from the menu bar.ģ) You’ll see a drop-down box for Enable which defaults to Recommended Applications.

When you want to change the default app for a file you’re opening, you can do this in a couple of clicks.ġ) Right-click or hold Control and click the file. If you are a new Mac user and not sure how to make it happen, here’s how to change a file type’s default app when you open it. These are just a couple of examples and there are plenty more situations like these.

You may want your images to open in a specific photo editing app rather than Preview or have spreadsheets open in Excel instead of Numbers.

But there could be times when you want your items to open in a different app each time. So when you double-click to open something, it will open that item in what it believes to be the correct and preferred app. Your Mac is pretty smart when it comes to opening files like documents and images.

How to change default programs mac