Apple 280C manual NEWS.PM4 REPORT.PM4 RESUME.PM4

Before you can assign a Macintosh program to a group of DOS documents, there are three questions you need to answer:

mWhat suffix do the documents have in common?

Many DOS programs automatically add a three-letter suffix (or filename extension) to a document’s name. For example, these PageMaker documents all share the suffix .PM4:

NEWS.PM4

REPORT.PM4

RESUME.PM4

mWhat Macintosh application program do you want to use to open the documents?

Each Macintosh document has a creator—that is, the Macintosh program used to create the document. When you double-click a document’s icon, the Macintosh opens the program that created the document.

Using the PC Exchange control panel, you can assign Macintosh programs to DOS documents as “creators.”

mWhat type of document is it?

Most programs are able to open or import some, but not all, types of documents. A document’s type is a three- or four-letter code (such as TEXT or PICT) that tells a program whether or not it can recognize the document. A program displays documents of types it can recognize in its directory dialog box.

Unless you specify otherwise, the Macintosh assumes that all DOS documents have the document type TEXT. You can assign different types to some DOS documents. See the next section.

A document’s type is different from its file format, which refers to the way information within the document is encoded. If a program is unable to accurately interpret a document’s file format, the document’s formatting may be displayed incorrectly. (To find out which file formats a program can understand, refer to the documentation for the program.)

Exchanging Files with DOS or Windows 151