On OS X, how do you change a file's “Kind”?

Question

On OS X I'd like to change the "Kind" label associated with files. Many of my files are showing up as "Plain Text File" when they are really javascript, php, css, and other file types.

I don't have a problem getting them to open with the application I want, it's easy to do - there are lots of threads on this.

The thing that bugs me is when I have a big folder with lots of files in it, I'd like to be able to sort by Kind and have all css, all php, and all js files together.

I saw file type which crashes on OSX, and I saw quickchange but I'm not sure if that's really what I need.

Maybe somebody else has dealt with this before and knows how to fix it?

Answer 1

The file kind is usually set by the application that handles that file type in Launch Services. For most of them, this is the application opening a file type by default, in your case, Coda.

Applications specify file types in their Contents/Info.plist file. You can see and edit it by right-clicking the application bundle and selecting Show Package Contents.

It looks like the Panic folks messed up something. All file types they define are PlainTextType:

You can change the name of the file type by editing all Document Type Name entries in Property List Editor, or all CFBundleTypeName entries when editing the file in a normal text editor. Just replace what you want to appear as description instead.

Edit, save, and make sure Launch Services notices (restart, log out, or just move the application to a different folder and back again), and the result looks like this:

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You need to repeat this whenever there's an update to the application, since those replace the Info.plist file you edited. Best to report a bug to the developers at Panic.

Answer 2

its up to the saving program to set the UTI (uniform type identifier) for a given file. if you manage to change them, then edit the file in whatever program you created them in that set them as plain text, they will likely be reverted to plain text when you re-save.

technically those files ARE plain text, they can be opened by any editor that supports the plain text UTI, which is the purpose UTIs serve, so this isn't an inaccuracy, its a semantics exercise. i personally avoid such issues by putting my images, stylesheets and javascript files in subfolders.

regardless, you likely need to scour your chosen editor and see if it supports a way to define UTI->file extension relationships, or a way ro define what UTI a file is aaved with.