I get about 10 e-mail a day that PC-Users can't open my files (like the new Palm Vx for Posettes) because it's a SIT (Stuffit - a very popular stuffing program for the Mac). Here's the link for all you Wintel-Users: http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/index.html Hope this helps you out ;-)

From the same site you can download a "DropZip" demo. Makes nice ZIP's from all the Mac-stuff you're dropping on it. No Wintel-User will be aware that your stuff is coming from a Mac and will not bother you with e-mails any longer. And all we Mac user have StuffIt Expander ... Think different! :)

Ok you got me! Further publications will be zipped ;-)

This is a very good place for the most important hint for all Mac zippers: Before you start, open the preferences (from DropZip, ZipIt, WhatEverZip) and TURN OFF MacBinary... Otherwise it will spoil it for your PC customers, and most of the time even for the Mac. To get the best of both worlds, use Macinstaller's "Export" to create a PC version. The Mac users get back the original package with it, and the PC users won't get trouble. If you really want to do a "ready-to-use" Mac version, then use SIT. The .sit link for Wintel is posted here frequently, so they can get it as well. But using MacBinary and then .zip is nothing but trouble. Should be banned! :-)

On this subject, I have the Aladdin expander, but don't the files have to be converted to PC after they are expanded? I thought there were some utilities for this. I can't seem to locate any. What Poser files can be converted from Mac to PC? Can light settings be converted? Thanks Beth

As a matter of fact, you must convert it to PC as long as your Mac files are still on a Mac harddisk, but the resulting files are "PC ready" afterwards, so there will be no need to perform another conversion after they are extracted on a PC. Maconverter converts all sorts of Poser files - it creates the PC only .rsr files for all libraries (including lights, of course) and for Geometries .obj's (if your package includes some). In this case you can also encode it to .pcf (if your .obj's are built from copyrighted originals) to avoid copyright infringement. It also makes sure that all files are correctly named for the PC. The Aladdin expander only expands, for zipping you need DropZip (which is shareware) or the full StuffIt Deluxe - which is a bit pricey, but great. You can open and edit StuffIt archives with it, which is very useful, couldn't live without it...

I got too little sleep this week and start to confuse my own tools... I reply #4 I really meant Maconverter's "Export" feature, stupid me... Shame that we can't edit our posts here... :-)

So, are you saying that the person who is providing Mac Poser files converts them with Maconverter prior to sending them to the person using a PC? And does it convert older Poser 2 files? Beth

Yes, this is exactly how it works. Both conversions (PC to Mac, Mac to PC) must be done on a Mac harddisk - this is because the Mac has a more complex file system (it stores more information about & within files). Because of this, a Mac disk can keep a PC file without loss, but not the other way round, and that's why I can't write Maconverter for Wintel. But if you convert the files to PC on your Mac, they won't change any more when zipped and expanded on your customers PC. About Poser2, there isn't much to convert because it neither has preview thumbnails nor Geometries that could be distributed. For plain document files, Maconverter does the autotyping for Mac and "name adjusting" for PC. But I don't have any information about the success with it (because I never got access to the PC Poser2).

Thank you very much for the helpful information, Martin. It's a never ending learning process. Beth