Storing LabChart 7 for Mac or earlier files outside of the Apple OS environment or emailing them can occasionally damage the files, making them unreadable by LabChart 7 for Mac, LabChart 7 Reader for Mac, or earlier Mac versions of ADInstruments software. To prevent this from occurring, you can save the files in a compressed format (such as zip) prior to emailing or transferring them.
Compressing a file is relatively simple in later versions of OS X as there is a file compression tool built into the operating system. To access this tool and compress a file, follow the steps below:
- Right mouse click or hold the control key and mouse click the file you would like to compress.
- The file options pop-up menu will now appear. Select the Compress "File_name" option from the menu.
- A compressed .zip version of the LabChart 7 for Mac file will now appear in the same file folder as the original file.
To access a file that has been compressed, simply double mouse click the .zip file and the uncompressed file will be placed in the same file folder as the compressed file.
If you do encounter a LabChart file that does not have the correct icon or does not open, then adding the extension '*.cfm' to the file name will often allow the file to be used in LabChart 7 for Mac or earlier, provided the file was written with Chart 4 for Mac or newer.
If you require further technical assistance with this or any other issue, please contact ADInstruments Technical Support.