Soxy offers a workaround for the issues that occur when you have multiple applications installed that all handle the same kind of document.

For instance, having multiple versions of Adobe InDesign or Adobe InCopy is quite common - many people still have CS2, CS3 and CS4 versions installed.

In those cases, double-clicking a document's icon can cause the wrong application to launch - e.g. a double-clicked InDesign CS3 icon might open in InDesign CS4. As a result, you might unexpectedly up-save a customer's file from CS3 to CS4, and when you send the customer's file back, they won't be able to open it because they only have CS3.

Soxy fixes this by working as a 'go-between' for a number of applications and document types. You'll hardly notice when Soxy is at work, but when opening a document, Soxy will actually first analyze the document and then forward it to the appropriate application.

For you, as the user of the computer, nothing changes: you simply double-click the document in the Finder, and the document opens, as usual.

The difference is that there is no more guessing: a QuarkXPress 7 document will automatically open in QuarkXPress 7, even if QuarkXPress 8 is installed: Soxy makes sure double-clicked documents are routed to the proper application version.

In Mac OS X, after Soxy has opened and analyzed the document, it will paste a custom Finder icon onto the document to reflect the document type. Thanks to Soxy, you'll be able to look at a document's icon and immediately know what InDesign or PDF version it is. For example, PDF 1.3 files will be clearly marked as such.

You can hold the <Option>/<Alt> or <Shift> key while opening a document with Soxy. This will bring up a dialog for selecting an alternate application.

For instance, when you'd open an InDesign CS3 document with Soxy and you'd have both InDesign CS3 and InDesign CS4 installed you'd be able to choose between the two by holding the Option key while opening the document.

To configure Soxy, simply double-click the Soxy application icon. A window showing various document types will be shown. Click-select any of the lines in the window to configure which app should be used to open any particular document type.

If the checkbox for a document type is unticked, then Soxy will remain 'out of the loop' for that document type, and double-clicking the document will cause the Finder to handle the document opening. Ticking the checkbox brings Soxy into the loop, so it can analyze and pass through those documents when they are double-clicked.

Many document types shown have a main type and subtypes (click the disclosure triangles in front of the document type to see the subtypes). For example, the 'InDesign' document main type has subtypes 'InDesign CS', 'InDesign CS2'?'InDesign CS4'. You can configure either the main type, or the individual subtypes, depending on what applications you have installed and how fine-tuned you want Soxy to be.

On Snow Leopard, the Finder icons will update almost immediately when you change the Soxy settings. On older Mac OS X versions, you might need to relaunch the Finder for the Finder icons to update.

For further tweaking, there is also a Soxy preferences screen with some additional configuration facilities.

Limitations:
* 20 days trial

The license of this software is Free Trial Software, the price is $19.00, you can free download and get a free trial.