Use Choosy.app to interactively choose which app to use to open any file

I have been using Choosy for a very long time (a quick search through my email revealed that I started using the beta in 2008 and bought my license in 2009).

Today I discovered a way of using Choosy to pop up a selector for any file type.

Select between opening a PDF file in Preview.app or Skim.app

Some time ago I added a rule to Choosy that gave me the option to edit a local .html file using Sublime Text in addition to selecting a web browser to open it in.

Rule for adding Sublime Text to browser selection when opening a local HTML file

Here is how to do it:

  1. Create an alias of ~/Library/PreferencePanes/Choosy.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Choosy.app (if you have installed Choosy all users remove the initial ~) and put it in your Applications folder.
  2. Create a rule in Choosy in the advanced tab
  3. Set the rule trigger to require that all the following conditions are true:
    • Web address begins with file://
    • Web address ends with <file extension> (replace <file extension> with the file extension of your choosing, e.g. pdf).
  4. Set the action to be “Promt to select from these browsers…”
  5. Select the applications you want to be able to choose from (they need not be browsers).
  6. In Finder right click a file that has the extension you just created a rule for, choose Get Info and change the Open with application to the Choosy.app alias you added to your Applications folder.
  7. Click “Change All...” so that all files with that extension are affected.

Thats it! Now when you click a file with that extension, it will open in Choosy, which in turn will show you the app selection popup. Below is a screenshot of my PDF rule:

Rule for opening a PDF file in Preview.app or Skim.app

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Screenlog

I created a small script a while ago that takes a picture of my desktop, resizes it and stamps the current date and time to it using ImageMagick. I run the script using a launch agent that runs every 45 seconds.

Afterwards, I create a movie from the screenshots using another script and ffmpeg. Here is the GitHub repo if anybody wants to use it.

My motivation for creating the script was to be able to quickly view my day infront of my screen to see what I did during the day. Especially when I feel that I was not very productive. Also, it helps me remember a day – seeing what I did gives me clues to what I was thinking during the day.

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/fnurl/screenlog