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.