Sharing files Page 2 of 2

Living in a Windows World

by John Rizzo, Macworld.com

Compression fractures

For years now, Mac users have been using the SIT or SITX file-compression formats used by Allume’s StuffIt. But Windows can’t handle them natively—it prefers the ZIP format. The Finder has been able to deal with ZIP files since OS X 10.3, so if you need to compress files before sending them to PC users, use ZIP. In the Finder, select the file, folder, or group you want to compress, then select File: Create Archive. To decompress a ZIP archive, double-click on its icon.

If you must send a SIT or SITX archive to a Windows user, make sure that person has a copy of StuffIt Expander for Windows (free). If you will be trading compressed files regularly, your Windows friend should get the Windows version of StuffIt Standard ($25) or StuffIt Deluxe ( ). (StuffIt can also create and decompress encrypted ZIP archives; Mac OS X cannot.)

If your Windows buddy sends you a self-extracting EXE file, the Mac version of both StuffIt Standard and StuffIt Deluxe can open it.

Finally, much as you might like to send OS X DMG disk images to your Windows pals, it just won’t work. Windows uses an entirely different format (ISO) for virtual disks. So avoid DMGs when moving files between Macs and PCs.

[ John Rizzo is the publisher of MacWindows.com.]

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