How to make icon same for a text-based file across the board?

Okay, I'm a recent convert to Mac, after many many years of PC fidelity. Not into gaming so much anymore, so it's been losing it's luster for me. I like the OS so far, have figured out most of what I needed (thank GOD for Perian, I have too many mkvs to tolerate Quicktime's very crappy format support).

Last on the list: file icons. Text-based files that don't end in .txt, anyway.
I know how to change individual file icons -- Command+I, then paste whatever icon I want over the existing icon.. But then the next time a create a subtitle file (.srt) or a lyrics file for my music tracks (.lrc) it reverts to the very annoying grey square. I KEEP having to change the icon for every new lrc or srt file I create. These are text-based files that all automatically open with TextEdit, but it's only files ending in .txt that automatically have the TextEdit icon.

Is there a way to force ALL files ending in .srt and .lrc to have the same icon as files ending in .txt?
Any help would be greatly appreciated -- thanks in advance!!

Welcome to the forums.

Similar to what you're doing open up the Get Info pane. Then from the 'Open with' drop down list select TextEdit. Then click the Change All button

mrplow said:

Welcome to the forums.

Similar to what you're doing open up the Get Info pane. Then from the 'Open with' drop down list select TextEdit. Then click the Change All button

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that those files are already set to open with TextEdit. But for some reason they don't have the TextEdit icon automatically assigned. Only files ending in .txt have the icon automatically. That's what I'm trying to fix.

Ah, OK.

Try changing them to a different app like Preview, then change them back

jakobkraft said:

Okay, I'm a recent convert to Mac, after many many years of PC fidelity. Not into gaming so much anymore, so it's been losing it's luster for me. I like the OS so far, have figured out most of what I needed (thank GOD for Perian, I have too many mkvs to tolerate Quicktime's very crappy format support).

Click to expand...

EGAD! Perian is no longer under development and may not even work in future versions of OS X. It's something of a kludge anyway and often performs poorly. You'd be much better off switching to an alternative like VLC or MPlayerX.

Last on the list: file icons. Text-based files that don't end in .txt, anyway.
I know how to change individual file icons -- Command+I, then paste whatever icon I want over the existing icon.. But then the next time a create a subtitle file (.srt) or a lyrics file for my music tracks (.lrc) it reverts to the very annoying grey square. I KEEP having to change the icon for every new lrc or srt file I create. These are text-based files that all automatically open with TextEdit, but it's only files ending in .txt that automatically have the TextEdit icon.

Is there a way to force ALL files ending in .srt and .lrc to have the same icon as files ending in .txt?
Any help would be greatly appreciated -- thanks in advance!!

Click to expand...

I don't believe Mr Plow's advice will work. The problem is that TextEdit doesn't have an icon asset specifically for .srt files. It has icon assets for the following file types: txt; html; rtf; rtfd. TextEdit can be set as the default for .srt files as Mr. Plow indicated, but the generic icon will be applied.

So... CAN you fix this yourself? Yes, but it requires some tinkering. Here's a guide that goes through this step by step:
osx - How to set an icon for a file type on Mac? - Super User

lifeisabeach said:

EGAD! Perian is no longer under development and may not even work in future versions of OS X. It's something of a kludge anyway and often performs poorly. You'd be much better off switching to an alternative like VLC or MPlayerX.



I don't believe Mr Plow's advice will work. The problem is that TextEdit doesn't have an icon asset specifically for .srt files. It has icon assets for the following file types: txt; html; rtf; rtfd. TextEdit can be set as the default for .srt files as Mr. Plow indicated, but the generic icon will be applied.

So... CAN you fix this yourself? Yes, but it requires some tinkering. Here's a guide that goes through this step by step:
osx - How to set an icon for a file type on Mac? - Super User

Click to expand...

Thank you. At least it's nice to know I wasn't missing something. If I get inspired, maybe I'll try the tinkering.

Perian is still quite good for adding more file functionality to Quicklook, at least, even if you use another app for playback like VLC. (I use XBMC since VLC can't place subtitles below the video frame and XBMC can). MKVs preview perfectly in Quicklook thanks to Perian, so it still has its uses.
I just won't update the OS, no need to, IMO.

jakobkraft said:

Perian is still quite good for adding more file functionality to Quicklook, at least, even if you use another app for playback like VLC. (I use XBMC since VLC can't place subtitles below the video frame and XBMC can). MKVs preview perfectly in Quicklook thanks to Perian, so it still has its uses.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, I can see it being perfectly handy with Quicklook. I would be curious to know how the content is encoded in your MKV files. If they are already x264 with AC3 tracks, then it's actually quite trivial to remux them into M4V containers and make things somewhat simpler. If you have DTS tracks, you can mux those in, but QuickTime won't play them itself. For QuickLook, a downmixed AAC track may suffice for your needs anyway. I rip my own DVDs/BDs (the particulars of how to do so are off-limits in this forum), but I've found that for streaming, a web-optimized M4V is far less prone to choppy playback at higher bit-rates than MKV. It doesn't impact the quality... just how the data is stored in the container.

That's odd that you can't adjust the subtitle position in VLC. I did some checking around and the feature exists in the Windows version. Bizarre. Anywho, check out Plex if you haven't yet. It's based on XBMC, but many people like the UI much more.

EDIT: you can change the position for subs in VLC. Set a hotkey to move up/down. It doesn't seem to impact PGS subs in the testing I just did, but does for text-based subs. I just don't see a way (yet) to make a permanent preference.

I just won't update the OS, no need to, IMO.

Click to expand...

No need to if you don't see a need, and there's nothing wrong with that, but OS X is advancing pretty regularly. The next version has a lot of nice enhancements coming and you may get to a point where you'll find them to be deal breakers. If you are in this for the long haul, I honestly recommend adopting strategies to future proof yourself as much as possible.