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| Thread ID: 63019 | 2005-10-26 22:55:00 | Mac .dat files and conversion | J ZEP (336) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 399693 | 2005-10-26 22:55:00 | Hi Guys, another quick Mac question, for the Mac users/experts like Safari ;) - I have been sent 2 emails with attachments i need - its a text file, but written on a Mac, the file extension is .dat (which on my pc is associated with sound files). I have tried opening in "Word", "Notepad" and "Wordpad" with varied results - basically it is a garbled code mess in most places - NOtepad seems to give the best results, however there are still areas which are unreadable unfortunately... I can define the wording at the top, which i take means it was writtten in "M a c W o r k s". Would just like some advice on what will convert this to a readable format for me on the pc please? I have been doing the usual search on the subject and most references to it seem to refer to the different email progs used to send and receive, but i am not sure if that is solely the problem here? I thought it was perhaps to do with what the file was written and read in - i.e needing conversion at my end? Thanks :help: |
J ZEP (336) | ||
| 399694 | 2005-10-26 23:46:00 | I think you need to ask them what program it was created on, .dat files are usually associated with windows. I have never heard of MacWorks What ever they are using ask them to save it as a Word file or as an RTF and attach that and you should be able to view it. What email program are they using, have a look at the headers of the email and it will show this. If it is an old email program they may need to adjust the file format for Windows when sending. |
Safari (3993) | ||
| 399695 | 2005-10-27 00:00:00 | Macworks was an ancient MS application I believe. Just get them to send it to you in plain old text or RTF... |
gibler (49) | ||
| 399696 | 2005-10-27 00:08:00 | Macworks was an ancient MS application I believe. Just get them to send it to you in plain old text or RTF... You are right, makes me wonder what sort of ancient computer they are using. Apple developed the MacWorks program as a way for Macintosh owners to use the Lisa's bigger screen, bigger memory, and hard disk. When Apple planned to discontinue Lisa Apple was left without a high-end system. All Apple had to offer at the time was the Macintosh 128K or 512K models, or the Lisa which ran only Lisa software. Apple's hardware and software engineers quickly developed a special program named MacWorks that allowed a Lisa owner to turn his Lisa into a big Macintosh |
Safari (3993) | ||
| 399697 | 2005-10-27 00:23:00 | I think you need to ask them what program it was created on, . dat files are usually associated with windows . I have never heard of MacWorks What ever they are using ask them to save it as a Word file or as an RTF and attach that and you should be able to view it . What email program are they using, have a look at the headers of the email and it will show this . If it is an old email program they may need to adjust the file format for Windows when sending . Thanks Safari, i have got a feeling "Macworks" is the equivalent of "MS Works" but for Macs? As i was being shown something on it the other day, and i noticed that the program "appeared" to be "Works WP" (presumed it was the word processor) . The mail program shows as "Apple Mail" . These . dat files appear to come in 2's - (which is how i have received them), from what i can find doing a search - this is the standard "Macintosh File fork system": Quote: File Forks: Under the Macintosh file system (called HFS, for Hierarchical File System), files are not monolithic and do not consist of one single segment . They may be composed of two pieces, called forks, i . e . a data fork and a resource fork . Only one of the two forks may be empty . AppleDouble and AppleSingle files should never exist under this form on the target machine . Since AppleDouble and AppleSingle are registered Mime types, all recent mail clients should decode them without asking the user . However, we frequently hear of users trying to guess what can be in those '* . dat' files (AppleSingle and AppleDouble often use the dat extension) . I will double check with them, on what program they used to create the files, (however i think the answer will be "works") and see if they can save it as a . doc or . rtf - but to be honest i doubt that will help, i was thinking it would be easier for me to convert at this end, rather than having to try walking them through settings on the phone, which i can't see and am not familiar with either, lol . Thanks for the help, most appreciated :) |
J ZEP (336) | ||
| 399698 | 2005-10-27 00:36:00 | Lol, missed your 2 posts while i was writing mine... Thanks :). So would the instructions i give them be like this: Open the file - and just do the normal "save as", option - to something different than the default (presume the .dat is default "save" format for them at the mo?). So the Mac wording will be .RTF format? or .txt? No differences there i hope? Thanks guys, --- i know this sounds pretty basic, but i want to be sure i am giving them "precise" intructions, as its blind leading blind ;) - if you know what i mean... |
J ZEP (336) | ||
| 399699 | 2005-10-27 00:36:00 | What size are these dat files | Rob99 (151) | ||
| 399700 | 2005-10-27 00:38:00 | If they are using Mac Mail they will have OS X and most likely what you saw was AppleWorks which is the Mac word processor. They can easily save it as an RTF and send it to you as an attachment. |
Safari (3993) | ||
| 399701 | 2005-10-27 00:41:00 | Appleworks is the default format, just select RTF in the file format menu. | Safari (3993) | ||
| 399702 | 2005-10-27 00:42:00 | What size are these dat files They are presumably the "Data Fork" and the "Resource Fork" files: Data file is: 28kb Resource file is: 406bytes :) |
J ZEP (336) | ||
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