Creating a new file kind

[dfb23]

Apologies if this has been asked and answered--I found a lot of answers to similar questions, but not this one.

I'm migrating from Windows to Mac (OSX 10.5.7), which entails moving a lot of files over. Some of these files are bass tablatures--essentially, plain text files with a *.btab extension.

When I brought them over to my Mac, they showed up as "Unix executable"(!) files, but I opened them successfully with TextEdit. Now they show up as "TextEdit.app document"s. This is fine, but I'd like to make the *.btab files show up as "Bass tab" or some such as their file kind--it's not absolutely necessary, but it'd help me keep everything organized.

I know how to create a new file type in Windows (essentially, create an association between the *.btab extension and any program, and give it a name). I can't figure out how to do the equivalent on the Mac, though. Any suggestions?

(And yes, before anyone decides to lecture me on it, I realize that file kinds on the Mac aren't dependent on extensions. I just want to be able to associate plain text files with TextEdit, but have them called something else.)

 

[MisterMe]

... Any suggestions?

...

The first thing that you should do is to see if there is a MacOS X version of your unnamed application that handles .btab files. If not, then do this:

• Click on a .btab file.
• Press [cmd]+[ i ] or select the File/Get Info menu item.
• Locate the Opens with: popup menu.
• Select your favorite compatible application
• Press the Update all... button.

Bear in mind that this will not cause your .btab files to display with a unique icon unless you have an application designed to handle .btab files as bass tablature files.

 

[dfb23]

Right--and I've done this. What I'm hoping to do is to give these files a kind name that's more descriptive than "TextEdit.app Document" (which is what this does to them). Can I change their kind names, but not the names of other TextEdit documents?

Like I said in my original post, this is easy (once you know how to do it) on a Windows machine, and so I figured it'd be similarly easy but hidden on a Mac. Is it in fact possible on a Mac?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Some good information about what you are trying to do in the second post on this page:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7219213

Basically, Mac OS X looks at special plist files inside of application bundles to determine which files are associated with which applications, then stores this information in some database that is, in turn, referenced by the Finder to do things such as display application-specific icons, double-clicking, "Open with...", etc.

It seems to me, at least for the moment, that if you wanted a new file type, an application would have to be created for that file to associate itself with. It may be extremely simple to create a "dummy" application in XCode that has the correct plist information contained within it to associate a custom icon and custom application name with your documents.