Changing BetterZip's Appearance

Changing BetterZip's Appearance

List Mode

BetterZip has two view modes to display an archive's contents:

• Flat list (⌘1)
  
  All files and folders are shown in a flat list. If you use this mode, you should display the path
  column. This mode is useful, if you need to sort the files regardless of their position within the
  folder hierarchy (e.g., by modification date).
  
• Outline view (⌘2)
  
  The files are shown in a tree-like list, like the Finder's column view.
  

Font Size

You can increase the font size used in the main window by pressing ⌘+ and decrease it pressing ⌘-.

Customizing BetterZip — the Preferences

Tab General

Start with an empty document

Check this option, if BetterZip should open an empty archive window when started. Empty archive windows are reused when you open an archive.

Quit after last window closed

Check this option, if you want BetterZip to quit after you closed the last window.

Default to direct extraction

Instead of displaying the archive's contents BetterZip can immediately extract it when opened in the Finder. This is called direct extraction. Check this option, if you want direct extraction by default. You can toggle the default behavior by holding down ⌘ and ^ (Cmd+Ctrl) while opening the archive.

Remove Mac specific stuff from archives

Archives created on a Mac usually contain extra files that Windows and Linux users cannot use. These are resource forks that start with a dot and an underscore and Finder configuration files named .DS_Store. These will cause no harm to users of other systems, but are a bit of an annoyance. BetterZip can remove these files for you. Check this option, if you want the Mac specific files removed automatically in newly saved archives.

Default to 1-Click Extract

BetterZip has a 1-Click Extract function that will extract the archives contents to a new folder named like the archive, in the same folder as the archive. If the archive contains only one file or folder no extra folder will be created. Check this option, if you want BetterZip to set the default function of the Extract button in the toolbar to 1-Click Extract. You can still toggle the button by pressing the ⌥ key.

Default to 1-Click Save

BetterZip has a 1-Click Save function that will save the archive with the default format (set this in the Save panel), using an automatically generated name in the folder you choose from the menu Save archives to. Check this option, if you want BetterZip to set the default function of the Save button in the toolbar to 1-Click Save. You can still toggle the button by pressing the ⌥ key.

Tab Columns

Check the columns that you wish to see and uncheck those you don't want.

Tab Helpers

At the moment BetterZip can only use one external helper tool and that is rar which lets you create rar archives. Extraction is built right into BetterZip, so you don't need an external tool for this. Rar must be downloaded and purchased from its manufacturer win.rar GmbH. Use the button on this tab to open their website in your browser, download RAR for Mac OS X, extract the rar commandline utility to a folder on your hard disk, and show BetterZip where you put the tool using the browse button on this tab.

Tab Cleaning

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.
On this tab you can add new search patterns by clicking the + button below the list or remove patterns you don't want by clicking the - button. Click a pattern in the list to edit it.

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

Tab File Types

In this list all file types that BetterZip can handle are displayed. You can choose which types actually to connect with BetterZip. If you select a type, the previous handler will be saved and you can restore it by deselecting the type again.

Tab Update

Set whether to automatically check for new versions or not. If you let BetterZip check for updates, you can also set whether to include beta versions which contain all the latest developments and features, but which might not be perfectly stable.

Tab Advanced

On this tab you can set a few more options:

Move archive to trash after successful direct extraction: The archives are not deleted, but put into the trash. You can restore them from there in case of an emergency as long as you haven't emptied your trash.


Reveal destination in Finder after extraction


You can also turn on the warnings you told BetterZip to suppress.