AI files not recognized in OS X

[monarchad]

Files (eps only?) copied from a Win2k server, even with the file extension, are not being recognized in OS X. These are files that were originally created in Illustrator. What appears to be a generic eps icon is shown for each document. Double-clicking to open these files launches Photoshop rather than Illustrator. Using the contextual menu to open them seems to convert them to PDFs rather than open them in Illustrator. Can anyone explain what is going on, and how I can correct this problem?

Thanks.

[Erika Heggie]

This isn't uncommon. The quickest way to get around this is to keep an alias of AI somewhere convenient, and drag these files onto the alias to force them to open in AI. Or right (or control-) click the file (for contextual menu) and select "open with" and then find AI in the popup menu.

You can also tell the OS to open ALL .eps files in Illustrator by selecting the file, "get info" and then under "Open with" select Illustrator. Keep in mind that if you select the "Change All" option here, ALL your .eps files will open in Illustrator -- not necessarily good for Photoshop or other .eps files.

[Jay Petronis]

OS X's filetype binding policy is about as graceful as a sickly orangutan tap dancing to Coltrane's "Interstellar Space," quietly whimpering in anguished desperation.

Try getting info on an offending eps file in the Finder, then go to the "open with:" section. Select Illustrator from the pop-up menu, then press the "change all" button.

[Richard Schletty]

Use File Buddy (OS X version) to change Creator and/or Type. You can even create a Droplet to do easy drag-n-drop batch changes for these generic files that are being served up by Win 2K.

[Mark Douma]

The technology that OS X uses to keep track of document to application bindings is called Launch Services.

A file's Creator Code, File Type, and filename extension are all used in equal importance to determine which application is used to open a file that you double-click on in the Finder. The File Type and filename extension are both used in equal importance to determine which applications can open which files. See my FAQ <http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@@.3bbbbebf> that deals with PDF documents for more information.

The following 2 files hold the default document to application binding information as collected from the applications on a particular Mac OS X machine:

/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore

Those 2 files are roughly the equivalent to the old OS 9 desktop files. The following third file has no OS 9 equivalent as it relies on the new capacity of OS X to alter the default document to application bindings after the File Type and Creator Codes have already been set:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist

When you choose a particular file in the Finder, open the Show Info window and use the "Open with:" section to choose a non-default application to open the file with, the Finder makes note of that preference by adding a small resource of type "usro" (user override?) to the file's resource fork. It also adds a custom icon resource of type "icns" (Icon Suite) of the corresponding non-default application you chose to open the file with. If you then click on the "Change all..." button in the Show Info window, OS X makes note of this global user override preference by adding it to the '~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist' file.

So in your case, these EPS files will have only a filename extension of ".eps" with no File Type and Creator Code information. Photoshop EPS images will have a filename extension of ".eps", a Creator Code of '8BIM' and a File Type of 'EPSF'. Illustrator EPS files will will have a filename extension of ".eps", a Creator Code of 'ART5' and a File Type of 'EPSF'. Since these 3 "types" of EPS files are all different, it's possible to have them each open in different applications.

Using a utility to change the Creator and or Type kind of defeats the purpose of OS X. Why change 300 files when you can change a single setting?

Hope this helps...