User`s guide

Downloading via a Browser
Some major Apple II sites are FTP sites-- places you get to via an ftp://
URL. FTP connections tend have a pretty raw look-- instead of colorful
backgrounds, pictures, fancy buttons, etc., what you see is mainly text showing
folder and file names. You may get folder icons and, perhaps, some simple icon
next to each file name.
Today, many Apple II sites are web sites with pages you get to via an
http:// URL. Often, web download sites will offer a relatively fancy display
listing titles with descriptions and, by each title, a button to click to do the
download. Other web sites may do without html pages and not be much fancier than
an FTP site.
Whether FTP or HTTP, you usually just click a button or file name to start
the download process. An exception might be when the file is a Text file you
wish to download; for Text file downloads you may need to right-click or SHIFT-
click on the item to get some sort of 'Save file' dialogue.
If the file is some binary type (like .shk, .dsk, .zip, etc.), just
clicking on the download link or button should bring up a Save dialogue-- like
an alert asking if you wish to Save the file-- or take you immediately to a Save
window.
When regular (left) clicking gets you to a Save dialogue or window, it
indicates that the download page's server knows that the item is not Text or
that your browser is one which defaults to binary mode when the filetype is not
recognized. Either way, the odds favor getting a good download.
Many Apple II sites are on servers which have no difficulty recognizing PC
filetypes like .zip and .bin but do not recognize popular Apple II filetype
designations such as .shk, .sdk, and .dsk If a regular click on a download link
or button for a shk, or other binary file results in a dump of garbage text to
your screen, it means your browser thinks it is supposed to download some kind
of Text file.
Right-clicking or SHIFT-clicking should allow you to avoid the garbage and
get a Save dialogue and download the file. However, since the browser thinks
it's Text, the resulting file will probably have the linefeed character code
($0A) added after every $0D in the file which is not followed by an $0A. So,
almost certainly, the download will be corrupted.
One try at a workaround if you are on an http:// site is to try the place's
ftp:// URL if it has one. If that doesn't help, contacting the FTP site via an
FTP program will almost certainly work.
If you are using an older browser, going to a newer version of IE or
Netscape could get the job done.
If you have not defined the particular Apple II filetype in Windows and/or
your browser, that may help. (See Geoff Weiss's page which talks about making
web browsers aware of Apple II file types for ftp connections at
http://www.gwlink.net/geoff/IIdownload.html .)
If the item is available from another place, you may find that going there
for your download solves the problem.