Approved Applications for photo editors

[MikeFromMesa]

I am new to the Mac so this may be a question that has already been addressed on this forum. If so, I apologize.

I just switched from Windows to the Mac and have installed the Mac versions of my photo software. When I try to use an external editor with one of my workflow apps I am presented with a dialog that asks me to pick the app to use. This dialog has what it considers to be "Approved Applications" and I have to change this to "All Applications" to select the app that I want and I have to do this with every photo I process, so it becomes a time consuming pain. I was wondering if there was some way to add an application to the "Approved" list. Surely OS X keeps what it considers to be a list of "Approved Applications" somewhere and, if I could somehow update this list with the app I want to use, I could save myself a lot of time by not having to browse.

Please note I am not asking about downloading non-approved applications, only about adding a specific app to the "Approved" list for photo editing. I spoke with Apple Care about this but they were not any help. They did not seem to understand what I was asking, so I thought I would try the Mac Community. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

 

[Slydude]

I might not have the answer but do have a few questions.

1. Which application keeps asking you to choose an external editor?

2. Which editor are you trying to add?

 

[MikeFromMesa]

Which editor?

I might not have the answer but do have a few questions.

1. Which application keeps asking you to choose an external editor?

2. Which editor are you trying to add?

1) Which editor - ACDSee's Pro 3. It is a workflow tool similar to Lightroom and I started to use the Windows version (Pro 6) when working on my PC. It is actually quite nice, does a good job and contains more functionality than LR4 or 5 (primarily selection tools and more extensive distortion correction functionality) and I started to use it when I realized I did not want to upgrade to LR5.

When I moved to the Mac I downloaded the trial of the Mac version (Pro 3). Since the Mac version does not contain all of the Windows version functionality I wanted an external editor that would provide me with simple layers and the ability to do selective editing.

2) Which external editor - Topaz's new simple editor photoFXlab. As I mentioned above it allows me to do simple masking and layering and provides easy access to Topaz's plugins.

But photoFXlab is not, apparently, an "Approved Application" for photos (I have no idea why) and so it is not listed as a (directly) callable application. I have to search for it every time I want to use it.

Does this help?

 

[Slydude]

I am still poking at this with a sharp stick to find an answer. If you do most of your editing in photoFXlab here's what I would try. Test with one or two files first and if it works it can be applied to all files/

1. From the Finder select two files you might want to edit and choose Command Option I to bring up the Get Info window.
2. In the Open With section of the window choose photoFXlab and close the window. If it does that's OK Close photoFXlab.
3. Now go through your normal workflow and see if ACDSee Pro handles things appropriately.

If it works with those files you can apply these files to all files of that type. Simply click the Always open with option in the get ion box. Then any file of that type should will open in photoFXlab as your editor.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

I am still poking at this with a sharp stick to find an answer. If you do most of your editing in photoFXlab here's what I would try. Test with one or two files first and if it works it can be applied to all files/

1. From the Finder select two files you might want to edit and choose Command Option I to bring up the Get Info window.
2. In the Open With section of the window choose photoFXlab and close the window. If it does that's OK Close photoFXlab.
3. Now go through your normal workflow and see if ACDSee Pro handles things appropriately.

If it works with those files you can apply these files to all files of that type. Simply click the Always open with option in the get ion box. Then any file of that type should will open in photoFXlab as your editor.

Thank you. This does, in fact, work. But it replaces the default opening app, which is Preview, with photoFXlab. This causes Pro 3 to also list it as the default external editor, but then clicking on any image to view it will open it in photoFXlab.

So it is a solution (and thank you for that), but if I am to use it as THE solution I will have to remember to switch the default opening app to it before editing and back from it after. Still, it is a solution and that is more than I had before, so thank you again.

But if there was a way to add to the approved apps, that would be a better solution.

 

[Slydude]

I agree. There is probably a better way. Several guys here are involved in photo work perhaps they have an answer. Meanwhile I'll keep checking for more info.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

Oops ...

I agree. There is probably a better way. Several guys here are involved in photo work perhaps they have an answer. Meanwhile I'll keep checking for more info.

I tried this with one photo, it worked and I replied back to you. I was too quick to reply.

It turns out that, for some reason, OS X will not allow me to do the Change All part of the process. I get a message saying the operation cannot be completed and I also get:

An unexpected error occurred (error code -10813).

I have no idea what a 10813 error message is, but clearly OS X is telling me "that is a no no".