Converting files from text format to native format...

[timgee]

Hi all,

I'm hoping that this is probably a simple and straightforward question - a mate of mine has sent me a whole lot of shareware (I have difficulty accessing net on regular basis), but has compressed a lot of it.
No problems there (I'm using Stuffit Expander 8), but when it decompresses, many of the programs have the Text Edit icon next to them (when I'm assuming they should have their proper application icon), and when I go to open them, I get a text file with a whole heap of gobbledygook (ie, hundreds of lines of characters).
I recall from my pre-OSX days that sometimes folk sent me binary (?) files that needed to be converted - is this the case here, and if so, what do I need to do to get things working?
All thoughts and comments appreciated - thanks in advance!
Tim

[wrldwzrd89]

Sounds to me like the Type/Creator code and/or Extension associations are messed up. Do you know what application these files belong to, or if they are applications themselves? If you do, then you just need to tell the Mac OS that this file either is an application or should be associated with this application (whatever that may be).

[timgee]

wrldwzrd89,

Thanks mate, but tried that already and no luck (get a -39 error, which, from memory, means that the end of file couldn't be found - ie, not a proper file or application).

Some of the files/folders have expanded and now show a symbol at the end of their names that looks like an 'A' and 'E' joined together - does this mean anything? (Oh, BTW, does anyone know where 'Key Finder' - or its equivalent - is in OSX?!)

Thanks, timgee

[wrldwzrd89]

It's in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder.

As for your other problem, maybe the files are corrupt? I'm stumped.