How to Set Preview As Default PDF Viewer? (Step by Step)

You may even download third-party PDF viewers like Adobe Acrobat, etc on your Mac and only find now your PDF will automatically open with this downloaded software instead of Preview. This is very annoying if you prefer using Preview. So, how to set Preview as the Default PDF viewer on Mac? We’ll teach you that in this article.

As Preview is not set for PDF files, it has many limitations to view the PDF files. We will list all of them here. If you’re looking for an alternative tool to view and edit your PDF, we recommend you to use UPDF, an AI-powered PDF viewer that comes with advanced features such as PDF translation, OCR, comparison, annotations, and many more. You can download it via the button below to give it a test.

So, first of all, let’s check how to set Preview as default PDF viewer.

Part 1. How to Set Preview As Default PDF Viewer?

Setting up Preview as a Default PDF viewer is actually easy. Just follow this step-by-step guide.

• First of all, select any PDF on your Mac first and then right-click on it. Then scroll down in the options and click on “Get info.”

• A new window will appear with some options. Scroll down a little and then click on “open with.”

• In the dropdown, you’ll see all the PDF viewers currently installed on your system. You only need to select “Preview (default)”

• Click the “Change All” button now and then on “Continue.” That’s it. Your Preview app is now set as the default PDF viewer on your macOS. Whichever PDF file you now open on your Mac will open in Preview by default without you having to select any specific PDF viewer each time.

However, using Preview as the default PDF viewer has its drawbacks. Let’s find out all of them!

Also Read: How to Change The Default PDF Viewer on a Mac? (Guide with Easy Steps)

Part 2. Why Not Recommend Set Preview As Default PDF Viewer?

Preview is a good tool for viewing PDFs on Mac, but it’s outdated and basic. Following are the reasons why we don’t recommend setting Preview as your default PDF viewer.

• Limited PDF Viewing Features: Preview is a basic PDF viewer that only allows you to view PDFs. You can’t do any advanced PDF work on it, like translating the PDFs, comparing PDFs side by side, etc.
• Basic Editing Capabilities: Preview offers you some basic annotation features but not advanced ones like extensive text modification, image insertions, and so on.
• Navigation Constraints: This built-in Mac PDF viewer offers only basic navigation options for jumping to specific pages that can be hectic and also time-consuming. Many other tools like UPDF allow you to jump to the start page with one click and have the bookmarks feature to make your navigation easier.
• No Form Creation or Filling Support: Preview struggles with interactive PDF forms. It can fill out some basic forms, but cannot create and edit PDF forms.
• No OCR (Optical Character Recognition): If you’re dealing with scanned PDFs or images containing text, Preview can’t convert them into editable, searchable text. You need third-party tools to do this work on your PDFs which consume a lot of your time.
• No Dedicated Slideshow Mode: If you ever need to present a PDF, Preview doesn’t have a dedicated slideshow mode with a pointer and pencil.

This is why we recommend using UPDF as your default Mac PDF viewer, as it’s an AI-powered modern PDF manager tool with advanced features. Compared to Preview, it has many awesome PDF viewing, editing, and managing features such as slideshow, comparing PDFs, translating PDFs into any language you want, OCR, jumping from one page to another page, and splitting your PDFs by size, by page, or by top-level bookmarks.

Furthermore, you can also edit your PDFs, and take notes with its advanced annotating features, such as highlighting, underlining, sticky notes, image insertions, and even drawing shapes for your presentations. So, download UPDF here to try it and if you like it, you can set it as your default PDF viewer to get all these perks.

Part 3. How to Set UPDF as Default PDF Viewer?

If you want to set UPDF as your default PDF viewer, it’s very easy. Simply follow this step-by-step guide.

• Find any PDF file first and then right-click on it, select “Get Info” > choose “UPDF” in “Open With” > Change All > Continue.

• Now, double-click on any PDF, and it will open with UPDF automatically.

Now, you can enjoy the advanced features of UPDF on your macOS with ease. Whether you want to annotate, translate your PDF, make scanned PDFs editable, or add bookmarks to them,  UPDF will help you do everything.

Final Words

How to set Preview as your default PDF viewer on Mac? First, right-click on any PDF > Get Info > Open With > Preview (default), then hit Continue when prompted. Your Preview will be set up as your default PDF viewer. It is super easy. However, it’s a very basic PDF viewer tool that doesn’t offer you so many advanced features.

Hence, we recommend you set UPDF as your default PDF viewer as it’s an advanced AI-powered PDF manager that allows you to translate, OCR, annotate, compare multiple PDFs, convert any formats to PDFs, and also allows you to add bookmarks and split PDFs. So, download UPDF today and make your life easier.