How to Open a Document with its Default Application in Python on Windows and macOS?

Open a Document with Default OS Application in Python on Windows and Mac OS

Opening a document using its default application is a common requirement when working with operating systems. Python allows you to access this functionality natively.

The appropriate approach varies depending on the operating system:

Windows:

To open a document with its default application in Windows, use the os.startfile() method. This method takes the file path as an argument and starts the associated program.

import os

filepath = "path/to/document.docx"
os.startfile(filepath)

Mac OS:

On Mac OS, you can use the subprocess module to open a document. The subprocess.call() method takes a command and its arguments as a sequence. For Mac OS, this sequence should start with "open" and the file path.

import subprocess

filepath = "path/to/document.docx"
subprocess.call(("open", filepath))

General Considerations:

For Linux systems with Gnome, you can use the gnome-open command instead of xdg-open. However, xdg-open is the standard for across Linux desktop environments.

The double parentheses in the subprocess.call() method are necessary because it expects a sequence as its first argument. Therefore, a tuple is used for both Windows and Mac OS commands.

By leveraging these platform-specific approaches, you can seamlessly open documents with their default applications from within Python.

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