Safari Opens Binary File as Text

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Level 1

15 points

Safari Opens Binary File as Text

I download free machine embroidery designs from a site; however, I must specify the exact file name to be downloaded. That is, if I try to directly access the folder, I am redirected to a different web page. The embroidery files are binary, but Safari opens them as text, rather than downloading them. Since I cannot see the folder's file list, I am unable to right-mouse-button click and choose to download them. For example, today's free design is:

http://www.designsbysick.com/todaypes/tribalflowers_002.jef

That file will only be available for a couple days.

I am running Safari Version 5.1.7 (6534.57.2) on OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro.

Is there a way to force Safari to always save these files, rather than opening them as text files?

Thanks,

Bev in TX

Posted on Jun 10, 2012 10:58 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Neville Hillyer

Level 4

1,879 points

Jun 16, 2012 2:19 PM in response to BevInTX

There may be but I have not yet found it.

I have find wget better for this type of thing.

If you have wget installed you can paste the following into your Terminal and hit return.

wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A '*jef' http://www.designsbysick.com/votingresults

It should put two free jef files in a new folder in your home directory.

You can get another free file every hour with:

wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A '*jef' http://www.designsbysick.com/hourly.php

Good luck.

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Answer 2

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jun 16, 2012 8:12 PM in response to BevInTX

Hi

if you paste or type the address of the file into Safari's address bar, then hold the Option/Alt key when you press Enter - it should download.

You can also paste the web address (Command V) directly into the Safari downloads window (make it visible from Safari-Window menu if you don't see it) - or select the text of the link & drag it there.

works here on the same system/safari as yours

the target of a webpage link can similarly be downloaded by holding the Option key as you click it.

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Answer 3

Jun 17, 2012 4:11 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Very useful Andy.

I could not find your first hint listed anywhere on my Safari help files but it works on my Safari 5.0.6.

This prompted me to search elsewhere for the missing Safari keyboard shortcuts although I don't think the above is listed.

My Google search:

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=safari+keyboard+shortcuts&as_qdr=all&newwi ndow=1&num=100

The Apple page:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42951

A very clear alternative page:

http://www.dori.com/safariShortcuts.html

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Answer 4

BevInTX Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 17, 2012 4:59 AM in response to Neville Hillyer

Thanks, this is very interesting; however, when I tried to configure it, I was told that I needed to install GnuTLS (GNU Transport Layer Security Library) first. And that in turn also needs Libnettle (cryptographic library). I tried to download GnuTLS, but it requires a userid/password. If I have time later, I'll look into it further, because I would like to be able to use wget.

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Answer 5

BevInTX Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 17, 2012 5:04 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Thanks! Your first tip worked beautifully 🙂. Now I don't have to open Firefox to download these files.

For some reason, the tip of pasting (or dragging) the URL into the Downloads window did not work in this case. It tells me, "The requested URL was not found on this server". But I only need one solution and your first one about using the <Option><Return> works well.

Thanks again!

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Answer 6

BevInTX Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 17, 2012 5:08 AM in response to Neville Hillyer

Thanks for taking the time to look up all of these lovely keyboard shortcuts. As I find keyboard shortcuts very useful, I'm sure I'll be using them in the future 🙂.

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Answer 7

BevInTX Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 17, 2012 5:55 AM in response to BevInTX

I previously said:

For some reason, the tip of pasting (or dragging) the URL into the Downloads window did not work in this case. It tells me, "The requested URL was not found on this server".

However, I went back and tried it again and it worked. I'm not sure as to why it did not work the first time, though we were having a little network slowdown at that time. So, thanks for both tips. I also forgot to mention, that this was the first that I had heard of being able to copy/paste URLs directly into Safari's download window, and this is a great tip in itself 🙂.

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Answer 8

Jun 17, 2012 6:15 AM in response to BevInTX

I installed wget a few months ago and don't recall having any of these problems.

I am going to be busy for a few hours but I don't mind assisting later if you don't resolve it.

It could be configured to automate your downloads - ie be set to run in the background every hour.

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Answer 9

Jun 17, 2012 2:58 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

I have investigated and as far as I can tell I downloaded my wget from http://www.merenbach.com/software/wget/

This is an OS X package of wget 1.12 which installs painlessly by a simple click.

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Answer 10

BevInTX Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 17, 2012 5:35 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

Thanks so much for the link to the OS X installation package. I downloaded it and easily installed it. I tested it with your example command and it worked great. 🙂

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