How to Get the Most Out of Apple's macOS Preview App

[ThunderSkunk]

No one mentioned that preview can show .STL 3D model files. I use this all the time when I make iterations of 3D models to 3D print. Just select the file in finder and hit space bar!!

I was pretty surprised that 3D files loaded in preview, and rotate & zoom with touch gestures smoothly and naturally with inertia... that's a really nice 3D viewer. But I was even more surprised to find that same functionality built into finder itself, with the preview pictures displaying the objects, and rotating and zooming right in finder. Makes 3D file management tasks very quick and easy. Really nice.

If there was a way to get it to accept plugins, to read the main Autodesk file formats like .dwg, .ipt, & .iam natively, that would really complete the package, but then Adesk would have to be willing to write the plugin...

 

[robbski300]

Where exactly do you change this setting? I only have the option to change the Window background in the General section of Preview's preferences pane.

View attachment 759472

BTW:

I have organized all my bank documents, receipts, etc in PDF documents. Those documents, I want to keep read-only. Opening in Preview, sometimes accidentally changes the document which is not in my interest. Sometimes, the CMD-Z does not work as expected. However, File-Revert to last opened brings me back to the original state.

You need to change this setting under System Preferences-General.

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[doublepost=1524579709][/doublepost]I'm unable to remove a white background from an icon. Even with the identical MacRumors logo used in the video, when I select it, it only selects the ENTIRE square jpeg with the white background. Anybody else have this problem?

 

[benlukes]

Preview is great except for the new autosave function. If you flip an image sideways for example and close it, it will be saved without asking. The default should be to have a pop up dialog asking you whether it is OK to save changes. I can't count the number of times I messed up an original file this way...

Yes! It is totally insane that someone decided to change this behavior, which is almost completely standard across all other programs for both Mac and PC. Whose idiotic idea was this?!? Having unique behavior for an incredibly important function (saving) for a single program that you are bound to screw up because EVERY OTHER PROGRAM does it a different way?

I blame this on the stupid movement at Apple to try to integrate iOS and MacOS (which is even more stupid because they are trying to achieve this goal by making Macs more like iOS rather than the other way around).

 

[Spectrum]

Strange, I have exactly 0 of the problems you listed. For me, it renders perfectly when pinching it down to a small size or blowing it up to a large size. Renders every document I have tried (except for Hawaii tax returns which must be specifically for Adobe - strange, archaic, hey its Hawaii! - aloha). Large documents like pdf instruction books work just fine.

Perhaps you have something else going on? That would be really concerning to me

Maybe you need to upgrade to "High Sierra"?

I think you are fortunate - and/or don't work with PDFs containing complex line-art. I recklessly just upgraded my work computer from El Capitan to Sierra, and I have to say that if anything, the rendering is the same or worse than it was in El Capitan. The biggest issue is that it can takes tens of seconds to fully render the line-art in a complex PDF. Then, if I zoom in, it takes the same time again. If I pan around the zoomed image? The same time again. If I go back to where I was previously looking? Blurry/pixellated again! This is the annoying part: I can accept that this is a complex file, but what is frustrating is that Preview refuses to cache the smoothed line art in RAM. It is simply constantly re-rendering over and over - a huge waste of resources and kills workflow.

I cannot believe I am alone in this problem? Indeed I know I am not. Three computers show the same problems, and colleagues in my lab have the same issues on multiple different machines. IMO, Preview whilst full of features is *DESPERATE* for a code-optimisation rewrite.

Bizarrely, the performance of "quicklook" (Spacebar) is much better than the Preview App itself. Whilst rendering still takes a little while, I can zoom in and then pan around without the file re-rendering with each panning movement - a big improvement!

SEPARATE QUESTION: Is if possible to turn off the inanely annoying File Window that opens up when you first open Preview or Text edit from the Dock? NO APPLE, I DO NOT WANT TO OPEN A FILE FROM iCLOUD! STOP PROMPTING ME TO TRY TO DO SO!

 

[IJ Reilly]

Yes! It is totally insane that someone decided to change this behavior, which is almost completely standard across all other programs for both Mac and PC. Whose idiotic idea was this?!? Having unique behavior for an incredibly important function (saving) for a single program that you are bound to screw up because EVERY OTHER PROGRAM does it a different way?

I blame this on the stupid movement at Apple to try to integrate iOS and MacOS (which is even more stupid because they are trying to achieve this goal by making Macs more like iOS rather than the other way around).

As has been pointed out a couple times already, this isn't a Preview issue. Autosave is a global option in MacOS, and is easily turned off. Even if you chose not to turn it off, you can use Edit/Undo (CMD-Z), or File/Revert To for returning to a previous document version or backing out of mistaken edits.
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SEPARATE QUESTION: Is if possible to turn off the inanely annoying File Window that opens up when you first open Preview or Text edit from the Dock? NO APPLE, I DO NOT WANT TO OPEN A FILE FROM iCLOUD! STOP PROMPTING ME TO TRY TO DO SO!

I'm not aware of any app that does not prompt for opening a document if it's launched directly from the app icon. The default path should be the last one you used. Personally I would get the default path off any a cloud service or an external drive since that can really slow things down.

 

[Spectrum]

As has been pointed out a couple times already, this isn't a Preview issue. Autosave is a global option in MacOS, and is easily turned off. Even if you chose not to turn it off, you can use Edit/Undo (CMD-Z), or File/Revert To for returning to a previous document version or backing out of mistaken edits.
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I'm not aware of any app that does not prompt for opening a document if it's launched directly from the app icon. The default path should be the last one you used. Personally I would get the default path off any a cloud service or an external drive since that can really slow things down.

Actually I just fixed this by unchecking all the boxes within system Prefs>iCloud>iCloud Drive>Options.

Now, I can happily click on Preview, and if no docs are open. NOTHING HAPPENS other than bringing Preview to the front. Bliss.

Text Edit now opens a blank doc - just like it used to. No extra clicks needed. Bliss X 2

 

[benlukes]

I think you are fortunate - and/or don't work with PDFs containing complex line-art. I recklessly just upgraded my work computer from El Capitan to Sierra, and I have to say that if anything, the rendering is the same or worse than it was in El Capitan. The biggest issue is that it can takes tens of seconds to fully render the line-art in a complex PDF. Then, if I zoom in, it takes the same time again. If I pan around the zoomed image? The same time again. If I go back to where I was previously looking? Blurry/pixellated again! This is the annoying part: I can accept that this is a complex file, but what is frustrating is that Preview refuses to cache the smoothed line art in RAM. It is simply constantly re-rendering over and over - a huge waste of resources and kills workflow.

I cannot believe I am alone in this problem? Indeed I know I am not. Three computers show the same problems, and colleagues in my lab have the same issues on multiple different machines. IMO, Preview whilst full of features is *DESPERATE* for a code-optimisation rewrite.

Bizarrely, the performance of "quicklook" (Spacebar) is much better than the Preview App itself. Whilst rendering still takes a little while, I can zoom in and then pan around without the file re-rendering with each panning movement - a big improvement!

SEPARATE QUESTION: Is if possible to turn off the inanely annoying File Window that opens up when you first open Preview or Text edit from the Dock? NO APPLE, I DO NOT WANT TO OPEN A FILE FROM iCLOUD! STOP PROMPTING ME TO TRY TO DO SO!

You aren't alone. I have the same issue.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Actually I just fixed this by unchecking all the boxes within system Prefs>iCloud>iCloud Drive>Options.

Now, I can happily click on Preview, and if no docs are open. NOTHING HAPPENS other than bringing Preview to the front. Bliss.

Text Edit now opens a blank doc - just like it used to. No extra clicks needed. Bliss X 2

That's interesting, confirmed this by deselecting Preview. Not sure it's a great idea to deselect all of the app though. I wonder what is the result of removing Mail's access to iCloud.

 

[benlukes]

As has been pointed out a couple times already, this isn't a Preview issue. Autosave is a global option in MacOS, and is easily turned off. Even if you chose not to turn it off, you can use Edit/Undo (CMD-Z), or File/Revert To for returning to a previous document version or backing out of mistaken edits.
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I'm not aware of any app that does not prompt for opening a document if it's launched directly from the app icon. The default path should be the last one you used. Personally I would get the default path off any a cloud service or an external drive since that can really slow things down.

Global? Can you list any applications that behave this way other than Preview and TextEdit? Even if you can, there are countless examples of programs that do not work this way, including every program I use other than the two I just listed. Every program I use on Windows does not work this way either, as far as I am aware. The behavior of asking to save changes before quitting a program has existed for as long as I can remember, and has applied to every single program I can think of until Apple made this change.

I am very happy there is a way to shut this off, which I have already implemented. The way to do it is ridiculous, especially given that it clearly is not a global attribute.

I'm also happy to learn that there is a way to turn off the stupid new TextEdit opening behavior. I'll give that a try next.

 

[Spectrum]

That's interesting, confirmed this by deselecting Preview. Not sure it's a great idea to deselect all of the app though. I wonder what is the result of removing Mail's access to iCloud.

Well I only use an Exchange server, nothing to do with iCloud as far as I understand. The only program I use that makes use of iCloud is BookEnds. I have everything else synchronising via DropBox.

Back on Topic: For those having Preview Woes. I just opened the very same complex line art PDF in Adobe Reader DC, and the rendering speed is nothing short of spectacular (2015 iMac 4K i7). In Preview it can take over 10 seconds for the current zoomed view to render sharp. In Adobe Reader DC - it is almost instant. Panning around is pretty smooth too. I am impressed (and I generally stay clear of Adobe products!). Give it a go!

Note: In terms of resources, Adobe is also using only around 50-100% of a single CPU core to do all this rendering - so pretty efficient.

 

[seanjs]

Why can't preview play audio files? I *hate* having to open iTunes just to play an MP3 I downloaded. Should I be using another program to do this more efficiently?

 

[JosephAW]

Why can't preview play audio files? I *hate* having to open iTunes just to play an MP3 I downloaded. Should I be using another program to do this more efficiently?

Quick View will play MP3 files. Press spacebar on file.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Global? Can you list any applications that behave this way other than Preview and TextEdit? Even if you can, there are countless examples of programs that do not work this way, including every program I use other than the two I just listed. Every program I use on Windows does not work this way either, as far as I am aware. The behavior of asking to save changes before quitting a program has existed for as long as I can remember, and has applied to every single program I can think of until Apple made this change.

I am very happy there is a way to shut this off, which I have already implemented. The way to do it is ridiculous, especially given that it clearly is not a global attribute.

I'm also happy to learn that there is a way to turn off the stupid new TextEdit opening behavior. I'll give that a try next.

Pages
Numbers
Keynote
iMovie

... to name four others that come to mind (I've never tried to keep track but I'm sure other do as well). As an iWork user for many years I noticed right away when these apps defaulted to autosave behavior with one of the OS updates (don't recall which one, Mavericks maybe). That's when I dug in and found the System Preference for changing it back to the more familiar behavior of showing the red dimple icon for edited but not saved documents.

 

[ignatius345]

Why can't preview play audio files? I *hate* having to open iTunes just to play an MP3 I downloaded. Should I be using another program to do this more efficiently?

I hate this too. iTunes is an atrocious default because it imports the file, which is very often not what you want if you just want to hear the thing. Fix it permanantly like this:

1. find an .mp3 file in your Finder and right-click on it to "get info"

2. toward the bottom of the info panel where it says "Open with", in the drop-down menu pick QuickTime Player.* Also click the button right below that that says "Change All..." so it applies to every .mp3 file and not just this one. A popup will ask you to confirm.



That's it. Now every .mp3 file you double-click from now on will open in QuickTime Player instead of idiotically importing into iTunes. If you open a lot of sound files, you might also consider changing .mp4 and .m4a files, etc.

* obviously you can pick any app that's capable of opening the file. I personally use Fission which allows me to do quick edits as well, but QT Player is nice and quick and you will already have it installed.

 

[Spectrum]

Is there a similar plugin for .mid (midi) files? In older OSX (Snow Leopard) it was possible to play midi files directly in QuickLook. But that seems to have broken for me now in El Cap and Sierra. Any pointers?

 

[S G]

This behavior can be controlled globally in the General preferences pane. Checking the box "Ask to keep changes when closing documents" will return the older method of confirming on document closing.

Even if you don't select this behavior, you should be able to undo almost any change you've made to a file. CMD-Z is your friend!

Thanks, I had not realized that this was a OS-wide change in saving documents that can be changed in Preferences... Good to know because Command-Z won't work if you closed the document after changes were made without you realizing it.

 

[malaresetting]

I often use the red arrow to find my place in a document, for instance to show the person I want in a page of birth registrations. But the size of the arrow seems completely random. Sometimes it's immense, sometimes it's tiny and skinny. Is there any way to control this?
I've also found that at times if you add a note to a document, and open the document months later, the note will still be there but empty of any text. At other times you add a note and try to drag it to where you want it and it refuses to be dragged.
Preview is showing as v11.0 on my computer; has it been updated past this? And if it goes rogue, can you delete it and replace it?
Edit: think I found the answer - "After you draw one, look at the Annotation tools at the top. You'll see one that looks like three horizontal lines, each thicker than the one above. Click that and select the line thickness. As long as you have the arrow selected, the thickness of the arrow will change. There are a few other style choices too. You can use the next button to change the color."