Helper Applications

To add a Helper application

On the Edit menu, choose Options.
Click the Helpers tab.
To specify which program (Helper) to start when you open a file of a new file type, click Add.
To change the program (Helper) that starts when you open a file of an existing type, click the type, and then click Edit.
Enter a description.
Enter the MIME type.
Enter the suffixes.
Specify whether the file type is Binary or Text.
In the Handling area, click Choose, and select the application you would like to use to open this file type.
Enter the File Type.
In the Handling drop-down choose one of the following:

Option	Result
Use Explorer as a viewer	Opens the file in the Internet Explorer window if the file type is supported by Internet Explorer.
Use a helper application	The file is downloaded to a temporary area and when complete, the helper application is envoked using that file. When you quit the helper application the temporary file is deleted.
Save as a file	Displays a dialog box that lets you chooes where to save the file.
Save and use a helper	The file is saved to a specified location on your disk and the helper is envoked using that file. The file is not deleted when you quit the application .

Tips

To use your Internet Config Helper settings, select the Use Internet Config Settings check box.

Related Topic
Choosing a helper application

To choose a helper application

The table below lists common MIME types and provides suggested helper applications. Enter the corresponding table information into the Helpers page of the Options dialog box.

MIME Type	Description	Suffixes	Suggested Helper Application
application/pdf	Adobe Acrobat file	pdf	Adobe Acrobat Reader
application/postscript	PostScript file	ai, eps, ps	Ghostscript
application/rtf	Rich Text Format file	rtf	Most word-processor applications including Microsoft Word
application/x-compress	UNIX compressed file	Z	StuffIt Expander 4.0.1 (with DropStuff 4.0)
application/x-director	Macromedia Director animation file	dcr	Shockwave
application/x-gzip	GNUzip compressed file	gz	StuffIt Expander 4.0.1 (with DropStuff 4.0)
application/x-tar	TAR file archive	tar	StuffIt Expander 4.0.1 (with DropStuff 4.0)
application/x-zip compressed	PKZIP compressed file	zip	StuffIt Expander 4.0.1 (with DropStuff 4.0)
audio/basic	Sun/NeXT sound file	au,snd	Built-in Support
audio/mp2	MPEG sound file	mp2	MPEG Audio for Macintosh
audio/x-aiff	Apple (AIFF) sound file	aiff, aif, aifc	Built-in Support
audio/x-pn-realaudio	Real Audio sound file	ra, ram, rar	Real Audio Player
audio/x-wav	Windows sound file	wav	Built-in Support
image/gif	GIF graphic	gif	Built-in Support
image/jpeg	JPEG graphic	jpeg, jpg, jpe	Built-in Support
image/tiff	TIFF graphic	tiff, tif	NIH Image
text/html	HTML file	html	Built-in Support
text/plain	Plain text file	txt	Built-in Support
text/tab-separated-values	TSV graph	tsv	Built-in Support as plain-text or most popular spreadsheet applications including Microsoft Excel
video/fli	Autodesk video	fli, flc	MacAnim Viewer
video/mpeg	MPEG video	mpeg, mpg, mpe	Sparkle
video/quicktime	QuickTime movie	qt, mov	Built-in Support
video/x-msvideo	Windows movie	avi	Built-in Support

To control the use of plug-ins

On the Edit menu, choose Options.
Click the Web Content tab and select or desselect the the Load Plug-in Object box.

Note

When you access a site that requires an uninstalled plug-in and the Load Plug-in Object box is selected, a message box will be displayed from which you can install the necessary plug-in.

To use files with an .hqx extension

The .hqx extension indicates that the file has been compressed with a process called Bin-Hex. In order to uncompress these files, you need an application that can unencode .hqx files such as StuffIt Expander.

Related Topics
Downloading (Troubleshooting)