Mac files come with headers of special file information that must be stripped before the file can be digested by a PC. Here's a tip: If you download a .gif file from the Web that you suspect may be a Mac .gif file, try opening it in your word processor. If the characters "giffqgif" or "bozo" appear near the start of the file, it's a Mac .gif.
Lots of free utilities are available online to strip Mac files of their headers. One is mb_strip.exe, available on PC World Online.
In addition to stripping headers from Mac files, you might also need to decompress the files. Download the free StuffIt Expander by Aladdin Systems. Look for the file sitex10.exe on PC World Online.
Also, if you've received sound files from a Mac user, you'll need to run them through a third utility to convert them to popular PC sound formats. To convert those Mac .snd files to Windows .wav files, download snd2wav.zip. To convert .snd files to Sound Blaster .voc format, download snd2voc.zip. Again, these files are available on PC World Online.
Finally, don't forget to shorten the name of the Mac file. Unless they're running Windows 95, PCs don't tolerate long file names as Macs do.
- Judy Heim