The goal of Project Mac is to unite Sims creators and website owners who want their downloads to have the largest possible audience in the Sims community. To encourage that, Project Mac provides an explanation of the problems that face Mac users who play The Sims, and offers advice on what creators and website owners can do to prevent those problems and make their downloads "Mac-Friendly".

The largest problem that Mac users playing The Sims face is related to a basic difference between the Windows and Mac operating systems. Mac OS (at least prior to OS X) has a 31-character length limit on filenames. Windows does not have this limit. The result is that often when a Mac user downloads and unzips items created on a PC, the tail end of the filename gets chopped off. At that point, The Sims can no longer identify the file and the file will not work in the game. The Mac user then has to go through their unzipped files and make sure they all have the proper filename extensions so that the game can recognize them. This is time consuming and frustrating.

Creators can make thing easier for Mac Simmers simply by remembering that 31-character filename limit when naming their creations. This applies to all files; objects, skins, walls, floors, roofs, everything for the game. By simply being aware of this filename length limit, creators can vastly broaden the audience of people who can download and enjoy their creations. That means naming your files with 31-characters or less in the filename, including the file extension (.iff or .wll or .flr, etc)

First, by making sure all the creators on your site are aware of and watch for that 31-character filename length. Second, to help advertise your site to Mac Simmers, and to encourage other site owners to join this project, please feel free to use one of the button images below to link back to this page. In return, we'd love to list your site here as a supporter of Project Mac, so once you're Mac-friendly and have a link up, please visit the Keep It SIMple mailroom and let us know about your site.