Home Forums Mac Software Mac Applications Numbers Document Showing as a Package

I know that for quite a few releases now all Pages and Numbers documents are actually packages, and just show and open in the Finder as a document. But I am now seeing a strange behavior. The following applies to OS 10.9.1 and Numbers 3.1 only, as far as I can tell, and only under the following circumstance (as far as I can tell):

Documents folder in the Dock set to "Display as Folder" and "View Content as List". Click on any Numbers document in this list and it opens as a package to show the Data folder, Metadata folder, index.zip, etc. instead of opening the document. However, if I now click on the "Open in Finder" option in this package contents display, the document itself correctly opens.

Even more strange, if I open a Finder window on the Desktop and then double-click the same Numbers document, it opens normally.

Pages documents in the Dock display don't have this problem and open as they should.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like a bug in how the Dock handles packages.

I just tested on my system running 10.9.1 and FWIW Pages 5.1, Numbers 3.1, and Keynote 6.1 files all appear and open normally in the dock and all are packages when the file is examined. You might try deleting and reinstalling Numbers 3.1.

Maybe just dragging it out of the Dock and restoring it as an easier first effort?

I reviewed my original tests and the results did not change. The dock contains ONLY aliases of files, folders, or applications. So the context menu for items in the dock should offer only two options…

• Options
  • Remove from dock
  • Open at login
  • Show in finder
• Open

You can only "Show package contents" in the Finder, not in the dock. When I tested I was able to open the Numbers/Pages/Keynote file in the appropriate application by clicking on it in the dock. If the item in the dock is a folder such as Documents opening that folder in fan, list, or grid view you are still seeing what are essentially aliases and the only option is to open the file or folder in the appropriate application. If you click on Documents in the dock and select Open Documents then you are back in Finder and can get the context menu for the file and "Show package contents." as far as I can tell on my system there is no difference in what happens no matter what the Display as… or View content as… settings are.

In rethinking my previous response I have to ask if this is all Numbers files or a particular numbers file. If it is a particular file, I would have to suspect the package itself is somehow damaged, if it is all Numbers files, then it would come down to the Numbers application. Another possibility would be a corruption in the Launch Services Database and although that seems a remote possibility rebuilding the database with OnyX, MacPilot, or TinkerTool System doesn't take long and is painless.

Try using TextEdit to create some .rtfd files; these are also packages. See if they behave the same way.

Thanks everyone for the comments, etc. One clarification: there was no Dock option to "Show Package Contents"; it was just happening.

Problem resolved! Tried various things which did not change the situation, then did a restart of the computer. Shazaam! Numbers documents in the Dock Documents Folder now open correctly. Go figure.