Copyright: QuickZip Help
Citation: Copyright © 1997 Starfish Software.


Introducing QuickZip

QuickZip lets you quickly compress a group of files into an archive, and extract files contained in an archive.

You can create both .zip files and self-extracting files (.exe) just by dragging and dropping files onto the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities. Or open QuickZip and select the files you want to zip.

You can unzip files either by dragging and dropping them onto the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities, or by opening QuickZip and selecting the file to unzip.

For more information, see Zipping files and Unzipping files. You can also customize QuickZip.

For information on toolbar buttons and menu commands, see Tools and Commands.


About zipping and unzipping files

You can use QuickZip to zip one or more files into an archive, or to unzip files from an archive.

Zipping files

You can zip files into an archive using either of these methods:

Drag and drop the files onto the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities.

Click the Zip icon on the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities, and follow the instructions in the QuickZip Wizard to select the files you want to zip.

Unzipping files

You can unzip files from an archive using either of these methods:

Drag and drop the archive onto the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities, or click the Unzip icon on the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities, and select the archive to unzip.

If you want to view the files in the archive and select which files to unzip, click the QuickZip icon on the InternetTools utility. (If the QuickZip icon does not appear on that utility, right-click InternetTools, select Customize from the shortcut menu, select Tools under InternetTools, and add QuickZip). Click Open from the File menu in the QuickZip window.

For more information, see Zipping files and Unzipping files.


Zipping files

To create a zip file

1.	Drag-and-drop one or more files onto the QuickZip utility, or click the Zip button in the QuickZip utility, to open the QuickZip Wizard.

If you have opened the QuickZip dialog box (by clicking the small QuickZip button in the Internet Tools utility), click the New button to open the Wizard.

2.	In the first QuickZip Wizard:

Click the Browse button to select files by browsing through folders. You can use Ctrl+click to select multiple files in the folders you view.

Click the Wildcard Add button to specify files to zip, such as: c:\mytext\*.txt.

You can use both the Wildcard Add and Browse buttons to select all the files you want to add to your archive.

Check the Compress Matching Files… box if you want to include matching files contained in sub-folders. For example, if you use Wildcard Add to specify c:\mytext\*.txt and there is a folder called c:\mytext\old that contains .txt files, checking the box will include them.

3.	Click Next.  In the second Wizard, type the name of the archive, or use Browse to specify the location for the file.

Check Self-Extracting .EXE file if you want to create a .exe file that can be unzipped just by double clicking it, without the need for any unzip utility.

Click Settings if you want to change options before creating the zip file, or create a password for the file.

Click the help button in any Wizard dialog to learn more about filling in the fields.

Spanning diskettes

If you specify a diskette drive as the location of your zip file and the file exceeds the diskette’s capacity, you will be prompted to insert one or more additional diskettes, as needed.


Unzipping files

You can unzip an archive either using the QuickZip Wizard to automate unzip all files, or using the QuickZip dialog box, which gives you additional options like selecting specific files to unzip.

To unzip all files in an archive using the QuickZip wizard

1.	Drag-and-drop a .zip file on the QuickZip utility, or click the Unzip button and select a file to unzip in the Open File dialog box.

2.	In the QuickZip Extract Wizard, click Select Folder if you want to change the directory where the files are unzipped.  Click Extract when you are ready to unzip the files into the directory you specified.

To view and unzip files in an archive using the QuickZip window

1.	Run QuickZip by clicking the small QuickZip button in the Internet Tools utility. Or start it from the Windows Start Menu by choosing Programs | Internet Utilities 97 | QuickZip.

2.	Click the Open File button, or choose File | Open, and select the file to unzip. You can view the contents of the archive and decide what to unzip.

3.	Click the Extract All Items button to extract all files, or select the files you want using Ctrl+click and click the Extract Selection button. Or you can use other options in the QuickZip toolbar such as Open Selection. For details on the toolbar options, see Tools and Commands.

Note	You can unzip a self-extracting .exe file without using QuickZip just by double-clicking it. However, if you open the file in QuickZip (using the second procedure), you can first see the contents of the .exe file and decide which files to uncompress.


About customizing QuickZip

You can customize QuickZip using one of these methods:

Right-click the QuickZip utility in Internet Utilities, and select Customize from the shortcut menu. In the Plug-Ins list, click Settings under QuickZip.

Click the QuickZip tool on the InternetTools utility. The QuickZip Viewer window opens. Choose Settings from the View menu.

When you are zipping a file, click the Settings button in the ZIP File window.

For details on changing your settings, click the Help button for each Settings dialog box.


QuickZip window

You can use the QuickZip window to create new .zip items, open .zip files, e-mail .zip files, and for related tasks.

The QuickZip window

File menu

Click New to create a new .zip file.

Click Open to open a .zip file, or Close to close an item.

Select an item in the window and click Save As to save it with a different name.

Select an item in the window and click Install to install it on your system.

Select an item in the window and click Send to e-mail it to another user.

Item menu

Select an item and click Add to launch the QuickZip Wizard.

Select an item and click Remove to delete it.

Select an item in the window and click Open to start it (for example, to start a program).

Select an item in the window and click Extract to unzip it.

Choose Select All to select all files in the archive.

View menu

Click Toolbar to display or hide the toolbar at the top of the window. For details on the toolbar buttons, see Tools and Commands.

Click Status Bar to display or hide the status bar at the bottom of the window.

Click Tree Outline to display or hide the left pane containing the tree structure.

Choose Large Icons, Small Icons, List, or Details to change the way files and folders appear in the window.

Choose Arrange Icons to specify how files are sorted in the window: by Name, Type, Size, Date, or Compressed Size.

Use New Refresh to update the window. Use it if you think file information has changed and the change has not been posted to the window.

Choose Settings to customize QuickZip. For details on the individual Settings pages, click the Help button on each page.


QuickZip Wizard: Select File

The first Wizard lets you choose the files and directories that you want to zip.

Wizard options

Browse

Click to search for and select the files and folders that you want to zip.

Wildcard Add

Click to enter a file or directory path. You can use wildcards in your entry, such as c:\*.bat.

Remove

Click to delete the selected file from the list.

Compress matching files in sub-folders

Check this box if you want to zip files matching your specification that are in directories below the starting directory. For example, if you specify c:\files\*.doc and the folder c:\files\old contains files with the extension *.doc, those files will be included in the zip file.


QuickZip Wizard: Zip File

The second Wizard lets you choose the name for the QuickZip archive. You can select the name of an existing archive you want to add files to, or create a new archive.

Wizard options

Type the name of the archive, or use the Browse button.

Browse

Click to enter the name of an existing archive or to choose a location for a new archive.

Settings

Click to change your settings, such as the compression, or to select a password.

Self-Extracting .EXE file

Click to create a self-extracting archive.

When you click Next, your zip or self-extracting .exe file is created.


QuickZip Wizard: Summary of Archive Results

The Wizard Summary tells you QuickZip’s results.

View this window to check the name and location of the archive you created. The archive results statement tells you that the archive has been completed, or reports any problem that may have occurred.


Compression settings

Use this page to modify settings used by QuickZip when you create or modify a zip file.

Compression page options

You can modify the following Zip preferences:

Mode

Add To .ZIP file: Check this option to add files to an existing .zip file or to create a new .zip file.

Freshen Items in .ZIP file: Check this option to replace the existing files in the archive with any more recent versions.

Update (Add and Freshen): Check this option if you want to update the files in an existing .zip file. This choice replaces older files in the archive with new versions, and, if there are any new files that do not exist in the archive, adds the new files.

Compression

Use low or no compression to increase the speed of the zipping process or if the files you are zipping have already been compressed.  Use higher compression when you want to create a small .zip file, which saves disk space and reduces transmission time. Some files that are already very compact, such as some graphics files, will not compress very much even at high compression settings.

File Names

Convert Names to Uppercase: Check this box to cause all letters to appear in uppercase.

Convert Long File Names to DOS style: Check this box if you want to use DOS (8.3) file names.

Store the path names of all files and folders: Check this box to have each file’s path stored.


Password settings

Use this page to add password protection.

Password page options

Password Protect the ZIP file: Check this box if you want to password-protect your archive.

Enter Password: Type the password you want.

Confirm Password: Type the password a second time. It must match the password you entered in the Enter Password field.


Viewer settings

To display the Viewer options, select Settings in the View menu of the QuickZip window, and click the Viewer tab.

QuickZip is the default ZIP file utility

Check this option to automatically associate .zip files with QuickZip. You can then double-click .zip files to automatically open them in QuickZip.


QuickZip Wizard: Extract Items

Use this wizard to confirm the file you want to unzip, and specify the location for unizpped files.

Wizard options

Select a folder…

Type the path of the folder where you want unzipped files to be stored. Or click the Select Folder button to locate the folder by browsing.


archive

A compressed (“zipped”) file containing a file or a group of files.  Archives are useful for saving hard disk space and for reducing the time needed to transfer files over a network or modem.  The archive contains compressed copies of the files;  the original files are left intact.

See also zip, unzip.


zip

The act of compressing groups of files into an archive is often referred to as “zipping.”  The archive contains copies of the zipped files; the original files are left intact.  For example, suppose you zip Cat.doc, Dog.doc, and Owl.doc, and create Animals.zip.  The new archive, Animals.zip, contains compressed copies of Cat.doc, Dog.doc, and Owl.doc.

See also archive, unzip.


unzip

The act of extracting compressed files from an archive.  The unzipping process creates exact copies of the original files from the compressed versions stored in an archive.  For example, unzipping a file named Animals.zip could result in creating copies of Cat.doc, Dog.doc, and Owl.doc.  Animals.zip is unchanged by the extraction process.

See also archive, zip.


Use DOS (8.3) File Names

Check this box for DOS and Windows 3.1 compatibility, including eight-character names and three-character extensions.  Note the following limitation:  if the first eight non-space characters of two or more files are identical and the files have the same extensions, the zipping process can not distinguish between them.  This means that only the last file is included in the .zip file.


Self-Extracting Files (exe)

A self-extracting file (.exe) is a compressed file similar to a .zip file that can be unzipped without help from an unzip utility. When you double-click a self-extracting file, a dialog box opens first allowing you to specify where you want the contents of the file to be stored.


wildcard

A wildcard is a character that represents other character(s) in a file name. An asterisk (*) represents one or more characters, and a question mark (?) takes the place of one character.

For example, *.doc means files with any name that have the extension .doc, which might include Mouse.doc, Dog.doc, and Deer.doc.  If you specify d*.doc, Dog.doc and Deer.doc would be included, but Mouse.doc would not.  Similarly, Dog.* would include Dog.doc and Dog.txt, but no file with any name other than “dog”.

Use one question mark for each character you want to represent.  B??r.txt includes Boar.txt and Beer.txt, but not Bin.txt or Brain.txt.

You can also use wildcards to include every file in a directory:  children\games\*.* specifies all files (with any name and any extension) in the children\games directory.  This might include Hopscotch.exe, Jump rope.txt, and Hide and go seek.doc.


Tools and Commands

The QuickZip tools are listed here in the order they appear on the toolbar. Each one has a corresponding menu command.

Up One Level—Takes you up one directory level.

Create New File—Creates a new .zip file.

Open File—Opens a .zip file.

Extract Selection—If the .zip file has more than one file, you can choose which one to extract by selecting it and clicking this button.

Extract All Items—Extracts all items in the .zip file.

Open Selection—Select a binary file, such as an .exe, which you cannot view with an application, and then click this button to open it.

Add New Items—Lets you add new items to the open .zip file.

Remove Selection—Select an item and click this button to delete it from the .zip file.

Large Icons, Small Icons, List, Details—Change the window display by clicking one of these buttons.

Install Software—If the .zip file contains a setup .exe or install program, click this button to automatically run that program.


QuickZip Wizard: Summary of Extraction Results

The Wizard Summary tells you QuickZip’s results.

View this window to see the number of items extracted and the destination.