Opening files in an application, like Firefox, only not Firefox
March 10, 2014 10:49 AM Subscribe
I am on a mac, and reluctantly use Firefox right now for some of my work. Firefox on the mac has become so slow and boggy, it is painful to work on. However, I download a lot of jpegs from webpages, and in Firefox, you can have the file automatically open with one click in Photoshop (or any other software), without having to download, go to the finder, and so forth.
Is that feature available in either Chrome or Safari? I have done some googling, but can't seem to find anything.
In any browser you can right-click (ctrl-click) and select "Copy Image" and paste into Photoshop etc.
In fact, I don't have any "Open Image in Photoshop" commands in Firefox; it might be a plugin or extension doing that work. I've always copied, or dragged and dropped image files out of web pages.
posted by ardgedee at 12:29 PM on March 10, 2014
In fact, I don't have any "Open Image in Photoshop" commands in Firefox; it might be a plugin or extension doing that work. I've always copied, or dragged and dropped image files out of web pages.
posted by ardgedee at 12:29 PM on March 10, 2014
Response by poster: I should clarify, these images aren't embedded images, but links, so they can't be right-clicked and pasted.
In Firefox, this dialog opens by default when you click on a link: http://screenshots.screencast-o-matic.com/screenshot/u/Fv9/1394480474260-17942.png
You can see there is a dropdown there to choose the application and open, rather than saving the file.
Admiral Haddock, how are you doing this in Chrome? For the life of me, I can't do anything but download the file, go to the finder or Chrome downloads page and open the file manually. I did have Chrome set at one point to open automatically, but my only option seemed to be Preview.
posted by nanook at 12:43 PM on March 10, 2014
In Firefox, this dialog opens by default when you click on a link: http://screenshots.screencast-o-matic.com/screenshot/u/Fv9/1394480474260-17942.png
You can see there is a dropdown there to choose the application and open, rather than saving the file.
Admiral Haddock, how are you doing this in Chrome? For the life of me, I can't do anything but download the file, go to the finder or Chrome downloads page and open the file manually. I did have Chrome set at one point to open automatically, but my only option seemed to be Preview.
posted by nanook at 12:43 PM on March 10, 2014
Since you have a solution already (Firefox), why not figure out why it's so slow? Do you have lots of active extensions? Have you cleared your history, cookies, and cache recently? Can you upgrade the RAM on your computer?
posted by oceanjesse at 8:26 PM on March 10, 2014
posted by oceanjesse at 8:26 PM on March 10, 2014
I second what oceanjesse says. If you go to the Help menu in Firefox you can choose to "restart with add-ons disabled" and see if that helps with Firefox performance. If you have a really old mac that may not help, but on my recent mac Firefox performance is great, not any different than Safari, even when I have dozens of tabs open.
Normally if you click on an image link in a browser it opens in the browser itself, unless it is in a format that it doesn't recognize. If you have an example link to an image, that may help in getting better answers.
posted by blub at 2:56 AM on March 11, 2014
Normally if you click on an image link in a browser it opens in the browser itself, unless it is in a format that it doesn't recognize. If you have an example link to an image, that may help in getting better answers.
posted by blub at 2:56 AM on March 11, 2014
Best answer: nanook -- just read your response.
In Safari you can enable this behavior as follows:
1. Safari -> Preferences -> General tab: Enable Open "safe" files after downloading*
2. In Finder, browse to any JPG file you have available. Right click, select Get Info.
3. In the Get Info window, select Adobe Photoshop from the Open with: panel.
4. Then click Change All... and confirm.
Test by going to this photo of a Curtiss Bleeker helicopter on Flickr. Click Download the Large 1024 size of this photo. If you have configured things properly, the file will save to your default Downloads folder and then open in Photoshop. If Photoshop is not running, it will launch and then open the file.
* This is unfortunately a large hammer for a small nail. Open "safe" files after downloading will also automatically handle any files listed in the note below the checkbox: Movie files, image files, audio files, and so on. It is also a known security risk, because it will auto-open, for example, any zip files that contain malware.
If you do this, it is a good idea to only selectively enable Open "safe files... while you are browsing for resources, and leave it off otherwise.
posted by ardgedee at 4:10 AM on March 11, 2014
In Safari you can enable this behavior as follows:
1. Safari -> Preferences -> General tab: Enable Open "safe" files after downloading*
2. In Finder, browse to any JPG file you have available. Right click, select Get Info.
3. In the Get Info window, select Adobe Photoshop from the Open with: panel.
4. Then click Change All... and confirm.
Test by going to this photo of a Curtiss Bleeker helicopter on Flickr. Click Download the Large 1024 size of this photo. If you have configured things properly, the file will save to your default Downloads folder and then open in Photoshop. If Photoshop is not running, it will launch and then open the file.
* This is unfortunately a large hammer for a small nail. Open "safe" files after downloading will also automatically handle any files listed in the note below the checkbox: Movie files, image files, audio files, and so on. It is also a known security risk, because it will auto-open, for example, any zip files that contain malware.
If you do this, it is a good idea to only selectively enable Open "safe files... while you are browsing for resources, and leave it off otherwise.
posted by ardgedee at 4:10 AM on March 11, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:56 AM on March 10, 2014