MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature from MacFixIt where our editors answer questions e-mailed to us by our readers. We have been getting regular contacts and questions from our readers, and hope to share our correspondences so everyone may benefit and contribute to them. This week we have questions about e-mail attachments not being recognized, troubles with OnyX, iPhoto e-mail attachments changing font size, and concerns about the latest iMac firmware updates.

Question:

MacFixIt reader "Bob" asks:

"Sometimes I will receive a e-mail with an attachment. The attachment gets downloaded but then I receive a message: The xxx is not in the format that Quick Time Player understands." What can I do about this?"

Answer:

If you know the file is in a common format (JPEG, GIF, or PNG image formats), you can try right-clicking the file to choose a more appropriate program than "QuickTime Player" to handle it. This is true for movies as well, which may be more efficiently handled by alternative media players such as VideoLAN Client (VLC), or MPlayer OS X Extended.

You may also have luck by installing a suite of movie and media codecs for QuickTime, such as Perian.

If you have success opening the file in an alternative program, you can get information on the file (highlight it in the Finder and press Command-I) and choose the desired program in the "Open With" menu. Then you can press the "Change All..." button to ensure all files of this type are handled by that program instead of QuickTime.

Question:

MacFixIt reader "Tom" asks:

"As per a recent suggestion on MacFixIt I downloaded OnyX. Downloaded fine, using Safari. Running OSX 10.5.8, which seems to be supported by the download. Every time i try to open the software it crashes. I'm in Safe mode. Any thoughts?"

Answer:

Make sure you download the appropriate version of OnyX for your operating system. The developers have released individual versions for each version of OS X, which are available at OnyX's downloads page. The latest version of OnyX will probably require Snow Leopard.

There are alternatives to OnyX that will work just as well, which include CockTail, [Snow] Leopard Cache Cleaner, Yasu, MainMenu, and MacCleanse, so give them a try if OnyX does not work for you.

Question:

MacFixIt reader "Carolyn" asks:

I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard. Since then I'm finding something strange with iPhoto. When I go to e-mail a picture and it puts the picture in an e-mail with the file number below the picture (which is in small font not what I'm typing my e-mail in now) the file number is very small ... so if I want to type text under the file number to explain about the picture and continue your e-mail, it automatically starts typing in the small font in which the file number is displayed. You have to manually change the font back to a larger size. I've called my local Apple dealer and Apple Canada - nobody knows why this is.

Answer:

Unfortunately, this problem appears to be a small bug in Mail or iPhoto; however, one way to get around this problem is to create an e-mail in Mail, and then drag the photo from iPhoto to the message window instead of selecting the photo and choosing iPhoto's "Email" options.

You might submit a bug report to Apple (requires you to create a free membership ID) regarding this issue, so hopefully it will fix the problem soon.

Question:

MacFixIt reader "Luiz" asks:

Hey guys, I heard about the new firmware update for iMac 27 inch. I just bought my iMac a month ago and was wondering if it is recommended to apply the update since i have not had trouble with the machine. Thoughts?

Answer:

From the reports so far, people who have not had the flickering problems have not seen any difference after the update, and their computers have remained stable. While the update will not benefit you directly, it should not hurt to install it. That being said, choosing to avoid the update would be erring on the side of caution.

Given your computer is relatively new, it should still be under warranty (but do check this before proceeding). Another thing to keep in mind is if there is ever a software update that requires the updated firmware, you can always apply it in the future.

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