When telecommunicating and exchanging files with other people, especially on computers other than the Macintosh, it is common to receive archives that were created by applications other than StuffIt. These files may have to be converted into special formats to send between computers.
The Translate menu contains a list of the Translators that you have available for your use. A Translator is a special file that extends the capabilities of StuffIt Lite by adding support for the conversion of certain files such as BinHex, PackItΓäó and Compact ProΓäó (to name a few).
To use a particular translator, find the Translator you wish to use in the Translate menu, and select the command you wish to perform.
An Example Translation
Having just downloaded a file named “CoolApp.pit.hqx” from your favorite on-line service or BBS, you wish to turn it into a usable file. To do this you must apply two different translators to it. You can tell this from the two extensions (.pit & .hqx) at the end of the file’s name. A file which ends in .hqx is a file which as been encoded with BinHex4. If you look in your Translate menu, you’ll find the “BinHex4” menu item, and its two options “Encode…” and “Decode…”. Choosing “Decode…” will display a dialog allowing you to select the file you want decoded. In the “Decode…” dialog, select the file (“CoolApp.pit.hqx”, for this example) and clicking the “Decode” button. You then will see another dialog allowing you to save the decoded file to another location or to rename it. A progress bar will show you how the BinHex4 translation is proceeding. After the file has been decoded, you are left with a file named “CoolApp.pit”.
When you go back to your Translate menu, you’ll find a Translator called “UnPack…”, which will extract files from archives created by a program called PackIt. PackIt archives are identified by a .pit. suffix. Choose “UnPack…”, and select the file you wish to extract from (“CoolApp.pit”, in this case) and click “Open”. A progress bar will show you how the UnPack translation is proceeding. When it is completed, you’ll have the file “CoolApp” to play with.
The Translators
The following Translators are provided for you as part of the StuffIt Lite package:
ΓÇó PKG Expand... (.pkg) ΓÇö Expands items in AppleLink Packages, used by the AppleLink communications software.
ΓÇó BinHex4 (.hqx) ΓÇö Encodes and decodes files in the BinHex4 file format. This format is used when transmitting files across the Internet.
ΓÇó MacBinary (.bin) ΓÇö Converts Macintosh files, which have two parts (Data & Resource) into a single data file and vice versa. This translator is especially helpful if you are translating files from the Mac to the PC and back.
ΓÇó UnPack (.pit) ΓÇö Unpacks files archived by PackIt.
An Easier Alternative to StuffIt Lite Translation
Aladdin offers another shareware package called, ΓÇ£DropStuff with Expander EnhancerΓÇ¥, and a freeware package called ΓÇ£StuffIt ExpanderΓÇ¥. With both StuffIt Expander and DropStuff with Expander Enhancer installed, you can translate many, many more compression formats under System 7 by simply dragging and dropping a file onto StuffIt Expander (including .zip and .arc from PCs; and .Z, .gz, and.uu from Unix systems)
If you are interested learning more about DropStuff with Expander Enhancer (DSEE), just click ΓÇ£More about DSEE...ΓÇ¥ below. You can also use the order form at the end of this UserΓÇÖs Guide to order DropStuff with Expander Enhancer.
