Cleaning an Archive

The Clean function lets you remove certain files from the archive in an automated way. If you use a version control
system like CVS or Subversion, you will probably not want to include the hidden CVS and .svn folders in your archives.
BetterZip uses search patterns (regular expressions) to find such files and removes them with the click of a button.
To customize these search patterns use the Cleaning tab in the preferences window.

To learn what regular expressions are and how they work, read this Wikipedia article or search Google for a vast number of tutorials.

BetterZip can also remove Mac specific files and folders from the archive. A Zip file created on
a Mac usually contains a lot of hidden files and folders that contain stuff only other Macs understand, e.g., Finder settings
and resource forks. For a Windows or Linux user these files are just garbage. To remove all Mac specific files, switch the
archive mode to Compatibility Mode via the File menu or use the little Mac button on the status bar. An alert box will
ask you whether you really want to delete the files. To keep these Mac specific files in your archive set the archive mode
to Mac Mode.

There is also an option on the General tab in the preferences window which lets you set the default mode for new
archives.