Symptom
1. Dialog boxes in Classic applications do not offer you the option of saving to a disk that is in the PC-DOS format.
2. If, in the Mac OS X Finder, you double click (or otherwise open) a Classic application file stored on a PC-DOS disk, one of these symptoms could occur:
- The Classic application of the type that created the file may open with no windows.
- A new document window may open in the affected Classic application.
- The affected Classic application may generate an alert box with a message stating that the file is already in use
Solution
Saving Files
The Classic Environment in Mac OS X 10.2 or later can work directly with volumes formatted using the DOS File Allocation Table (FAT) format.
If you need to save to a PC-DOS formatted disk from a Classic application in an affected Mac OS X version, use these steps:
1. Save the file to a location on your hard disk, such as your Documents folder or desktop.
2. After the file has been saved, select the Finder from the Dock.
3. Using the Finder, navigate to the location in which you saved the file.
4. Drag the file from the Finder window to the disk icon.
Note: This requires two Finder windows if you have deselected the option to have disks displayed on the desktop.
If you do not need to exchange files with a computer that uses PC-DOS formatted disks, then you may wish to reformat the disks as either Mac OS Standard or Mac OS Extended format. You will be able to save to disks with either of these two formats from within Classic. Mac OS Extended is preferred if all the Macintosh computers that use the disk have Mac OS 8.1 or later.
Opening Files
If you need to open a Classic document from a PC-DOS disk, simply copy the file to the Documents folder on your hard disk and open it from there.