# iMovie Help



## Mr Thaw (Jan 26, 2003)

How do you import mp3 and jpg files into iMovie 2.1.1 for Mac OSX? 

It's really annoying..


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## ByerlyRips (Jan 26, 2003)

Yeah, it's pretty tough man. Surely impossible for someone to figure out on their own. Whoever said iMovie didn't need a manual is full of sh*t, yo!

Check it out; go to the File menu and select Import File. Then you have to chose the file you want to import.

Intuitive my a**!


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## Mr Thaw (Jan 27, 2003)

No... their dimmed in the import window.. Anyone know why?


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## kickingback (Jan 27, 2003)

Mr. Thaw,

This is an article that someone referred to me. I was having the same problem you were and it solved the problem.

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JPG/TIFF files will not Import

Set Type/Creator to JPEG/ogle._ The REAL issue here is to understand the history the Mac file system._ Originally, the name of a Mac file was never used as an indication of what type of file it was. (And still isn't!) There was no such thing as a file extension (.JPG, .MP3, etc) because users just named files ANYTHING they wanted. Therefore, the MacOS needed some way to distinguish between the different kinds of files. In order to do this, the MacOS kept track of 2 pieces of information about each file...a Creator and a Type.

It was not as common for Mac users to share files with non-Mac users, so it didn't cause much of a problem. Of course, when a non-Mac file is copied to a Mac system, the OS needs a way to determine what type of file it is. In order to be a good citizen and play with non-Mac systems, something needs to map a 3 digit extension to a certain type of file when it is copied to the Mac. That is where things get tricky. Lots of different programs will attempt to do this. The MacOS itself will assign a file type if it copies files off of floppy disks. FTP clients will assign a file type when it downloads a file from a server. Browsers will also do this when they download files. And to make it even worse, these assignments can be changed in the configuration of each application. So as you can see, there is great opportunity for files with the same extension to get different file type assignments depending on how they got there and how each user's system is configured.

Most applications look at this file type data to decide what kind of file each is...not the file name or extension. Therefore, when someone says they have no problem with files of type .yyy or type .zzz, it really doesn't mean much. What is important is what type of file the application that is trying to use it thinks it is.

This is where these other tools such as ResEdit, ChangeCreator, or FileXaminor come in. They let you force a file to have a certain creator and a certain type.
 You can also use a small AppleScript from Lennart's site.

http://www.berga.nu/~usrlt/imovie/index.html

So, in iMovie, if your .JPG or .MP3 or whatever files are grayed out when trying to import them, then it means they currently are assigned a file type that is not recognized by iMovie. Forget about the name or the extension. You need to use one of those tools to force them to have a creator and type that iMovie will recognize._ Thanks to FunWithMacX for the extended answer.

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Hope this helps, it worked for me.


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## Vard (Jan 27, 2003)

This problem is most often caused by a 'creator code' that iMovie doesn't recognize.  And it most often happens when trying to get a downloaded file from the interenet into iMovie--the reason, most people us PC's, and PC's rip MP3's with a creator code that iMovie doesn't like.

The fix...

If you have QuickTime PRO, convert the file to AIFF, which is supported, since Apple inveted the format.  You may notice that you once small audio file is now HUGE.  Don't freak out about this, iMovie converts ALL audio to AIFF anyway, even if you import a good MP3...so you're just doing part of the work for it.

If you don't have QT PRO, there are many other freeware and shareware programs out there that are pretty good at converting in this manner.  One of the best that I use regularly is Audacity.  Very versatile and an essential part of my iMovie work--and it's free.

Go to www.versiontracker.com and look it, or some other program, up...you should be fine after that.

Hope it helps.
Eddie


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