Number 203 - April 2000

What the Heck are MIME Files?
from Ask Gina Access Magazine, March 12, 2000
Q. Sometimes I get a message with an attachment in MIME format. What are MIME messages, and why can't I just see the attachments I'm supposed to see?        Daniel Orsello, Tampa, Fla.     A. MIME (multipurpose Internet mail extensions) is a way e-mail programs encode and send other types of data besides text, such as digital images or word processing files.     Most of the time, MIME--the files usually end in .mim or .mme--is invisible to you. You send a file to someone, it goes with an e-mail, and upon arrival the file is back to normal. Unfortunately not all e-mail software uses MIME the same way.	For example, if someone using Microsoft Outlook tries to send multiple pictures to a friend on AOL, the pictures will show up as a single MIME attachment. That's probably what you're experiencing. AOL has more information on this topic at Keyword: How to Download. Look for the link there that says Handling MIME Files.     WinZip is great for opening MIMEs. Download the latest version on a trial basis at: www.winzip.com. (See Librarian Tom Stepanek for a shareware copy - TOGGLE Ed.) For free MIME opener try Fastcode32, available at: members.xoom.com/listerman/fileutil.html.     Macintosh users can try Decoder at Etresoft which is especially handy at decoding MIME files.
Number 203 - April 2000