I get e-mail that has a picture that I can't see. It is in MIME ver.1. Is there a program I can get to see MIME files?

Most e-mail software handles the format known as Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions files just fine, but it can be a pain for those with systems that can't. It is a way to reduce graphics and other binary files into ordinary text codes that can be sent over the Internet without losing data.

The best software I know of to ease the phantom MIME pain is the popular WinZip, now in version 8.1. You can find it by going to www.download.com and use "WinZip" as a search term. This software is designed to handle archive files and specially encoded ones like uuencode, bin hex and MIME.

Users can try out WinZip for free and then pay the $29 for a permanent license if they like it. For folks who rarely encounter MIME files, the trial version can solve the viewing problem.

James Coates writes for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Publishing company newspaper. He can be contacted via e-mail at jcoates@tribune.com.