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Extract Options

When you extract an archive, BetterZip adds an accessory view to the standard macOS open/save panel that picks the destination. Options here can come from an extract preset or you can configure them by hand for this one extraction.

  • Load or save a preset: A popup at the top of the accessory listing every extract preset you’ve defined. Panel Settings at the top of the menu is a sticky slot that remembers whatever you tweaked here last time. Choose Save the current settings as preset at the bottom to capture the current state as a new preset on the Presets tab.
  • Exclude: Choose a saved filter to skip matching files and folders during extraction.
  • Rename items: Apply a renaming transformation (clean up illegal characters, replace spaces with underscores, etc.) to every file as it comes out of the archive. See File Renaming on Save and Extract.
  • Exclude empty folders: Skip folders that would otherwise be extracted with no files inside. Pairs well with Exclude – if a filter drops everything inside a folder, the now-empty folder won’t be created either.
  • Extract flat: Drop every file straight into the destination folder, discarding the archive’s folder structure. If two files share a name after flattening, BetterZip’s conflict resolution kicks in.

Below a separator, the After successful extraction group controls what happens once the files are on disk:

  • Move archive to: Pick the Trash or any folder to move the source archive to after a successful extraction. Defaults to Don’t move.
  • Run when done: Run the selected shell script, Shortcut, AppleScript, or Automator workflow, passing in the extracted items as parameters. Shell scripts additionally receive the environment variables BZ_ARCHIVE_PATHS (the archive’s current location, one path per line for multi-part archives, already reflecting Move archive to) and BZ_ARCHIVE_ORIGINAL_PATH (the folder the archive was in before it was moved). AppleScripts can declare their handler as on postprocess(theItems, info) to receive the same data as a second parameter: a record with archivePaths and originalPath; the classic one-parameter handler keeps working.
  • Show extracted files in Finder: Reveal the destination in Finder when extraction completes.