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When receiving and reviewing work documents, downloading articles, or arranging a portfolio, you may find yourself accessing many PDF files. The default PDF viewer on Mac computers is Preview — but you can easily switch it with a few clicks.
If you prefer to use an alternative viewer — such as Adobe Acrobat Reader — you can easily reassign your default PDF viewer in the "Get Info" pop-up. This is accessed by right-clicking on a PDF on your desktop or in your documents.
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It's also worth noting that if you've just downloaded an alternative viewer, you may be greeted with a pop-up when you first launch it prompting you to select it as your default application.
If not, here's how to change your default PDF viewer.
Advertisement1. Right-click any PDF on your computer.
2. Hover your cursor over "Open With" in the pop-up menu to see your current default viewer. It will be displayed at the top, above a faint gray line. This is usually "Preview."
3. Move your cursor and click "Get Info."
4. This will open a pop-up which displays general information such as the PDF size, the date it was created and last modified, and more.
5. Under the "Open with:" tab, you will see your default application displayed in a grey box. If the tab is closed, click the small grey arrow to the right of it to expand the tab.
6. Click the box with the name of your current default PDF viewer — below "Open with:" — to open a menu of options.
7. Click the default viewer that you'd like to switch to.
8. Once you've selected your new default viewer and it's displayed in the box, under "Use this application to open all documents like this one," click the grey "Change All…" button.
9. This will open a pop-up verifying that you want to make the change. Click "Continue" to confirm.
You can always switch to another default application or back to "Preview" at any time by reaccessing the "Get Info" pop-up.
