If you’d want to edit the context menu in Windows, you’d need to do it by tweaking the system registry. Luckily, things are a bit easier on macOS. One of the things you can do without too much effort is to add ‘Open With’ option to the context menu for any app in macOS.
Mac’s default context menu editing options are limited, but you can certainly expand them using apps. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll use a simple app called Context Menu.
How to add ‘Open With’ option to the context menu for any app in macOS
You can either use the free, lite version of Context Menu which only supports one action, or install the $4.99 paid version if you’d like to add multiple actions for an app. Just follow the links below to install one of these versions from iTunes:
Once you install Context Menu, you will need to go to System Preferences -> Extensions to enable it since it’s a Finder extension.
Run the app and you’ll be prompted to select the folders in which you want the context menu option to be displayed.
With that taken care of, open Context Menu’s preferences and navigate to the Context Menu tab. There, click the “+” button, select the “Add an app” option and choose the app you want to add to the context menu.
We used TextEdit as an example but you can add any other app you have installed.
Finally, enable the new option in Context Menu’s preferences.
From now on you can go to any of the directories you’ve set to have the context menu option, right-click on any file and the “Open with….” option should be there even if the file format is supported or not.
Unless you want to set multiple context menu options per app, Context Menu Lite should be enough. What’s especially useful about the app is it allows you to make the context menu option appear only in specific folders which can help keep your context menu relevant and uncluttered.
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