Crossed wires — Safari and Across Lite

If you are annoyed that Safari doesn't download Across Lite crossword puzzles (such as those available from the New York Times Premium Crosswords service) as double-clickable documents, here is a fairly simple patch that you can apply to Across Lite OS X v1.2 that will allow the OS X Finder to properly recognize .puz files.

Procedure

You don't have to be a technical whiz to follow this procedure but you should be comfortable navigating Mac OS 9 (Classic) file open dialogs. You should also be at least somewhat familiar with basic cut/copy/paste operations.

1. Optional but highly recommended — locate the Across Lite application on your Mac (usually Across Lite OS X v1.2 in the “Applications/Across Lite OS X” folder) and make a backup copy just in case something goes wrong with the patching process.
2. Get the essential pre-OS X ResEdit tool (465 Kb) if you don't already have a copy stashed away somewhere. Double-click the downloaded .sea archive to extract the “ResEdit 2.1.3” folder.
3. Download this tiny archive (1227 bytes!) and unstuff it if it isn't automatically decompressed. You should end up with a document named Across Lite plst resource in your downloads folder.
4. Double-click on Across Lite plst resource to open it with ResEdit. Click on the ‘plst’ resource icon to select it. Now copy the ‘plst’ resource to the clipboard.
5. Use the File Open… command in ResEdit and open the Across Lite application (Across Lite OS X v1.2). You should now see a window full of resources, from ‘AcRs’ to ‘xmnu’.
6. Paste the ‘plst’ resource from the clipboard into the resource fork for Across Lite OS X v1.2. If you are not positive that you have done this correctly, quit ResEdit without saving and start over again from step 4. Otherwise save the modified Across Lite application before quitting.
7. Launch the modified Across Lite OS X v1.2 once and enjoy your Mac's newfound ability to open downloaded .puz documents with this program by default! (You may need to log out and back in to see the correct .puz icons)

Technical background

Although Safari doesn't provide a way to specify the Mac OS file type/creator metadata that should be assigned to downloaded files based on their extension or MIME type as other browsers do, Apple seems to be reasoning that any file you might encounter on the Internet already has a file extension anyway and that any types that Safari doesn't know how to post-process by default can simply be opened using the OS X Finder. This is because applications written for OS X are supposed to include a bundled ‘Info.plist’ file — or, in the case of single-binary Carbon applications, an equivalent ‘plst’ resource — that binds designated file types and extensions to that particular program.

Unfortunately, Across Lite OS X v1.2 contains neither an ‘Info.plist’ file nor a ‘plst’ resource and since Safari is not providing the file type and file creator metadata that other browsers can, this is why the Finder has no idea what to do with a downloaded .puz document when you double-click on it. All we are doing with this patch is inserting a reasonably appropriate ‘plst’ into the resource fork for the Across Lite binary so that OS X associates the .puz extension with this application:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM "file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version="0.9">
<dict>
  <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
  <string>6.0</string>
  <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
  <string>com.litsoft.AcrossLite</string>
  <key>CFBundleName</key>
  <string>Across Lite OS X v1.2</string>
  <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
  <string>APPL</string>
  <key>CFBundleSignature</key>
  <string>AcRs</string>
  <key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
  <string>English</string>
  <key>LSPrefersCarbon</key>
  <true/>
  <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
  <string>1.2</string>
  <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
  <string>1.2</string>
  <key>CFBundleLongVersionString</key>
  <string>Version 1.2 Copyright 1995-97 Literate Software Systems</string>
  <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
  <string>128</string>
  <key>NSAppleScriptEnabled</key>
  <string>Yes</string>
  <key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
  <string>Copyright (c) 1995-97 Literate Software Systems</string>
  <key>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key>
  <array>
    <dict>
      <key>CFBundleTypeOSTypes</key>
      <array>
        <string>Apzl</string>
      </array>
      <key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
      <string>129</string>
      <key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
      <string>Across crossword</string>
      <key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
      <array>
        <string>puz</string>
      </array>
      <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
      <string>Editor</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
      <key>CFBundleTypeOSTypes</key>
      <array>
        <string>TEXT</string>
      </array>
      <key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
      <string>129</string>
      <key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
      <string>Plain text document</string>
      <key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
      <array>
        <string>txt</string>
        <string>text</string>
      </array>
      <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
      <string>Viewer</string>
    </dict>
  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Update (5/2/2004)

A maintenance release of Across Lite OS X is currently available on the NY Times Premium Crosswords site. Among the bugs reportedly fixed in Version 1.2b is the problem with “Downloaded puzzles not being associated with the program.”

If, for some reason, you still want to patch the original version 1.2 program file — perhaps you no longer have access to the Premium Crosswords service — but you are comfortable working in Terminal and have the OS X Developer Tools installed on your Mac, Scott Kovner suggests the following command line alternative to using ResEdit after you have downloaded (and unstuffed) the plst resource file:

Dedicated to the memory of A. Wayne Naumann — friend, colleague, mentor — who surely would have called within five minutes of discovering that he couldn't open his beloved crossword puzzles to find out what was going on.