Is it possible to "conditionally" assign apps to open files?

[ScottR]

Normally, I'm fine with having Preview open PDF files.

However, I have a fillable form (not created by me) that has some weird quirks in its layout; the only application that I've found that handles this form properly is PDF Expert. Every month I have to fill out a half-dozen copies of this form, which means dragging and dropping them each time onto the PDF Expert application, where the form is filled out and the text I entered is then printed out onto a another (preprinted) form (long story, but it has to be done that way).

Aside from the inconvenience of doing so, I sometimes have to re-edit the form to fix an error, and in my haste to do so sometimes double-click to open and make the fix--only to then realized it opened in Preview, which can't handle the form. With luck I've caught this before printing, since Preview can't print those forms properly and I've wasted one of those preprinted sheets.

Is there a way to set all PDFs within a particular folder (and its subfolders) to always and only open in PDF Expert?

 

[p33t3r]

…dragging and dropping them each time onto the PDF Expert application…

Not a fix for your problem per se, but you do know that you can right-click the files and choose "open with" PDF Expert, so that you don't have to drag the files? Maybe a bit faster, at least.

 

[Basic75]

You could write a shell script that detects which directory a file is in and then opens it with one or the other application. Then you could hopefully set up all PDF files to be opened with that script. Not sure what extra hoops you'd have to jump through, I've never tried this.

 

[galad]

You can select them all, open the Finder inspector (cmd-option-i) and set the app you want.
It should stick if you copy a file in Finder, but not from the "save as" options in apps.

 

[ignatius345]

Not a fix for your problem per se, but you do know that you can right-click the files and choose "open with" PDF Expert, so that you don't have to drag the files? Maybe a bit faster, at least.

I do this quite a bit, for similar reasons the OP cites. Fortunately the email app I use (Mimestream) lets you pick which app to open an attachment with on the fly.

 

[ScottR]

Not a fix for your problem per se, but you do know that you can right-click the files and choose "open with" PDF Expert, so that you don't have to drag the files? Maybe a bit faster, at least.

Slower.

 

[bogdanw]

I have most archives associated with BetterZip, but I need some to just unzip when double-clicked. So I changed their extension to zipp and associated them with the default archive utility.

You could do the same and create a folder action to change the extension of the pdf files put in a folder to pdff and associate that extension to PDF Expert.

 

[Slartibart]

I have most archives associated with BetterZip, but I need some to just unzip when double-clicked. So I changed their extension to zipp and associated them with the default archive utility.

You could do the same and create a folder action to change the extension of the pdf files put in a folder to pdff and associate that extension to PDF Expert.

to add to this: the file extension renaming can be done easily automatically when the files are added to a particular folder via e.g. a folder action.

 

[BrianBaughn]

This page describes using a folder action to change a file's default application:

How to open a specific filetype in a folder with a default application to that folder on Macbook?

I have a folder with a single filetype including subdirectories that I'm trying to open with a default application. For example, I have about 3 text editors and I need to open txt files in a folder1

superuser.com

I didn't read the whole page and don't know how applicable it is to current macOS versions.

 

[bogdanw]

This page describes using a folder action to change a file's default application:

https://superuser.com/questions/125...a-folder-with-a-default-application-to-that-f

I didn't read the whole page and don't know how applicable it is to current macOS versions.

"This will change the default Application for those files only." did not work for me in Sonoma 14.7.1

 

[Fishrrman]

If you don't want to change the default application "completely"...
... that is, if you only want to use a different app to open a file now and then...

... then the simplest way to do it is to right click (or control-click) on the file, and select the app you want by choosing it from the "open with..." sub-menu...

(I do this frequently myself)

 

[shadowboi]

Normally, I'm fine with having Preview open PDF files.

However, I have a fillable form (not created by me) that has some weird quirks in its layout; the only application that I've found that handles this form properly is PDF Expert. Every month I have to fill out a half-dozen copies of this form, which means dragging and dropping them each time onto the PDF Expert application, where the form is filled out and the text I entered is then printed out onto a another (preprinted) form (long story, but it has to be done that way).

Aside from the inconvenience of doing so, I sometimes have to re-edit the form to fix an error, and in my haste to do so sometimes double-click to open and make the fix--only to then realized it opened in Preview, which can't handle the form. With luck I've caught this before printing, since Preview can't print those forms properly and I've wasted one of those preprinted sheets.

Is there a way to set all PDFs within a particular folder (and its subfolders) to always and only open in PDF Expert?

Quite easy to do with Shortcuts app on your iPhone.

It must look like this but instead of “default app” you choose PDF Expert (sorry I don’t have it installed, had owned it in the past but on another iCloud account that I no longer have access to).

You can even automate it to open on some time of the day, you can place the shortcut into control center (since iOS 18), add it to homescreen, probably even make a widget

 

[ScottR]

Quite easy to do with Shortcuts app on your iPhone.

This is the MacOS forum; I was asking about doing this on my Mac.

 

[bogdanw]

I had a little more time to test the solution linked by @BrianBaughn above #9 and it works.
Open Script Editor (/Applications/Utilities/Script Editor.app) and copy-paste the code:

property Default_App_To_Open_With : alias "Macintosh HD:Applications:PDF Expert.app:"
property Default_App : Default_App_To_Open_With
property name_Extension : "pdf"
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving dropped_items
    repeat with this_File in dropped_items
        tell application "System Events"
            if name extension of this_File is name_Extension then
                set default application of this_File to Default_App
            end if
        end tell
    end repeat
end adding folder items to

Save as file name “PDF Expert”, File Format – Script Bundle in ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions
Open Folder Actions Setup (search in Spotlight or open from /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Folder Actions Setup.app), select the folder in the left side and the PDF Expert script in the right side. Now every new pdf file added to the selected folder will be associated with PDF Expert.