Hi,
the program that Mac OS (pre OS X) chooses to open a file is determined by
the creator code of that file (four letters, case sensitive). The desktop
database will usually be updated when new versions appear, but this may or
may not be what you want - in your case it obviously isn't.
(There are other questions regarding the file association, giving a non-Mac
file with a particular ending a file type and creator code, this is governed
by the Internet, Foreign File Access or PC Exchange control panel and a
completely different story.)
There is a tiny very useful utility that will change the association of
creator code and program painlessly: Save A BNDL, and *every* Mac user (pre
OS X) should have it. It is freely available
(
http://www.tempel.org/mac/#svab) and does the following:
If you drag a program onto its icon, it will change the Finder database so
that this program will be used the next time its the creator is called for.
So try to drag your Word program onto the icon and see if it works. You do
not need to rebuild the desktop (you only have to restart the finder for OS
< 7.5 !).
This is also extremely handy when your HyperCard stacks start to open with
HyperCard Player or your BBEdit files with the evaluation version of BBEdit
V.6 instead of BBEdit lite.
(It actually changes the bundle information, which is contained in the BNDL
resource, but don't worry about that.)
This is actually the utility I miss most sorely using Mac OS X. Does anybody
know how to do this in Mac OS X (my *.doc files try to open Xabiword --
never works...)?
Note that this works on the program level and not on a file by file basis,
for changing file association, use Ty-pyst in Zig's Utility
Pack(
http://www.blackdiamond.co.za/bdfree.html), another indispensable
freeware program.
Hope this helps.
All the best from Germany,
Thomas Fischer
(Sorry, I sent this reply to a different thread by mistake.)
Yes:
The most recent one you installed takes over the double-click for both OS's.
In OS 9, you need to update your File Exchange control panel to send the
file to Word 98 instead of Word X.
Cheers
This responds to microsoft.public.mac.office.word on 7 Jul 2003 12:38:42
-0700, (e-mail address removed) (MLR):
Problem: I can't "easy open" (doubleclick) a WORD file on a Powerbook
G4 in OS 9.2 and have it auto-open there in WORD '98. Error message
sends me to OSX, where I DO NOT want to open the file [and CANNOT
anyway, while I am in the OS 9.2]. File will open when WORD is already
running, but not initially. CAN ANYONE HELP?? Thanks.
Please post all comments to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.
John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
[email protected]
