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Save Options

When you save an archive, BetterZip adds an accessory view to the standard macOS Save panel. The top controls are always visible; the rest live behind a More options / Fewer options toggle. All of these options come from a save preset and can be overridden for this one save.

  • Load or save a preset: A popup at the top of the accessory listing every save preset you’ve defined. Pick one to load all of its settings into the accessory; you can still tweak any of them. The last entry, Save the current settings as preset, captures the current state of the accessory as a new preset on the Presets tab.
  • Archive format: Choose the archive format. Format capabilities determine which of the options below are available – for example splitting, encryption, and recovery records.

Click More options to reveal:

  • Compression: For most formats you can pick the compression strength. Better compression mostly means slower operation.
  • Encryption method: For 7-zip, zip, and rar you can pick an encryption method. If not absolutely necessary, don’t use the weak zip encryption: it can be decrypted with current computers. Most of the time you want Strong (AES-256). With 7-zip and rar, Strong encryption also encrypts the filenames so the archive can’t even be listed without the password. Don’t lose or forget your passwords. A small gear button appears next to the encryption popup when you’ve loaded a preset that has a saved password: it lets you switch between Use Preset Password and Enter New Password for this save. If you choose an encryption method without a preset password, BetterZip prompts for a password when it’s time to write the archive.
  • Split into volumes of: Enter the size of each volume and pick a unit (KB, MB, GB). Leave the field blank to keep the archive in one piece.
  • Recovery records / Recovery volumes: For the rar format only, add error-correction data so the archive can be repaired after partial damage. Values are entered as percentages. See RAR Archives – Recovery records and recovery volumes.
  • Additional parameters: Format-specific command-line options passed straight to the archiver. Useful for tweaks the UI doesn’t expose – only enter something here if you know what you’re doing.
  • Run when done: After the archive is written, BetterZip can run the selected shell script, Shortcut, AppleScript, or Automator workflow, passing in the archive’s filename.
  • Filter: Choose a saved filter to decide which files and folders go into the archive – a filter either keeps only what it matches or leaves it out.
  • Rename items: Apply a renaming transformation (clean up illegal characters, replace spaces with underscores, etc.) to every file as it goes into the archive. See File Renaming on Save and Extract.
  • Move originals to: Pick a folder (or the Trash) to move the original items to after a successful compression. Available only in Direct Mode; use with caution.
  • Set the archive’s date to the latest date in the archive: Does exactly that. If you create an archive of a file dated November 8th 2004, the archive’s date will normally be today’s. With this option, it’s set to November 8th 2004 instead.
  • Remove Mac specific stuff from the archive: Strips files and folders that only macOS understands – resource forks, .DS_Store, and the __MACOSX folder. Helpful when the recipient is on Windows or Linux.