trying to download aiff files from email attachment

[newtomac29]

I have an iMac with snow leopard and iTunes 9.0.2. A student has emailed me audio files to attach to her web page project. These are short clips of spanish phrases for people that want to hear the phrase spoken. She sent them as .wav & .mp3. I couldn't open either of those. Now I have .aiff files that open fine but are problematic to download. iTunes thinks they are podcasts and downloads them with the link to the source (my email). When I close the email, the file won't open. They download to my documents in Finder OK but have an additional .webloc file extension. Not sure what this will do if I upload it to the server. How do I 'save as' to make it the best file for the internet? I found information online that says aiff can be read by mac and pc but not sure if this is the best format to use.

Any help would be greatly appreciated but please keep in mind that I was a pc for 20+ years and only a few months as a mac. Sometimes my mac baffles me so basic explanations would be best!

Thanks!

 

[macdottie]

downloading files embedded in emails

I had a similar problem, I was trying to download a MP3 file that was sent IN an email. If I dragged it to my music folder or the desktop, I only got the link and not the file. I forwarded the message to myself, closed my email program, opened the email on my webmail, this gave me the option to download the file and presto, I had the file and was able to copy it to my music and finally on to my Ipod.

 

[Leddy]

Hi Newtomac29,

When you say that you couldn't open a WAV or a MP3 I'm a bit baffled ... Your Mac will read both of those formats natively. In Mail you should be able to click the Save button at the top of the incoming message which will automatically download the file(s) to your Downloads folder. If you click and hold on the Save button, you will be able to select a different destination if required ie. to send the files to your desktop or Music folder ... Alternatively, if you grab the file(s) and drag them to your desktop, they should transfer to your desktop. From there you should be able to upload the files, as they were sent to you, to the server - no converting required ... (- unless they are recorded in some obscure format.)

You can preview them in the finder by selecting a file and hitting the spacebar ... If they are WAV or MP3 they should play in iTunes if you double-click them to open them or alternatively you can Control click (or Right click if you've enabled it in System Preferences) and open in Quicktime or another program of your choosing.

You can convert files in iTunes, by changing your Import Settings - under iTunes Preferences => General. The options there are AIFF, AAC, MP3 and WAV. Once you've changed the setting to the file format of your choosing, hi-light the file you want to convert in your iTunes Library and select Create AIFF/AAC/MP3/WAV version under the Advanced Menu.

Hope some of this helps.

Cheers.

 

[Leddy]

Hi MacDottie, such complicated workarounds should not be necessary. The reason you only got the link it would seem is because you haven't downloaded the file. ie. you are just dragging the link to your desktop, not the file - which is still to be downloaded to your computer.

Newtomac29: are you accessing the emails through Mail (your Mac's built in email program) or Webmail through a browser? As it sounds like you may just be dragging links around, not files ...

If accessing the file(s) through Webmail (ie. through a bowser), you'll need to download them to your computer before you can do anything with them.

Cheers.