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BetterZip 3 – Version History

BetterZip 3.2.1 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Bug Fixes

  • Version 3.2 introduced a bug that could crash BetterZip when saving with one of the TAR formats.

BetterZip 3.2 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

New Features

  • Added a hidden setting to make a folder expand when double clicked in the archive window instead of extracting and viewing it.
  • Added a hidden setting to show the real password length in the preset configuration (instead of always five bullets).
  • Added support for Android apk files.

Enhancements

  • BetterZip now respects the System Settings’ setting Sound > “Play user interface sound effects”.
  • Enhanced the QL preview for the weirdly zoomed Spotlight window.
  • Added .mscz as supported file extension to the QL generator.
  • Changed the default for concurrent operations to 4 instead of Auto, because the system would max out all processors.
  • Clarified the help page for the preset configuration.

Bug Fixes

  • Switching to flat list view mode didn’t work correctly on macOS Sierra.
  • Fixed the weird focus behavior when editing text fields in the preset configuration on macOS Sierra.
  • Changing hidden settings in the German help system didn’t work correctly on macOS Sierra.
  • When creating multi-part rar archives through the BetterZip service other multi-part rar archives in the same folder were moved to the trash.
  • After deleting all presets, the preset configuration didn’t work correctly under certain conditions.
  • AppleScript: destination:original wasn’t handled correctly.
  • The options in the save panel weren’t always set correctly with the preset values, if the preset used “Show save panel”.
  • Duplicating a preset sometimes didn’t copy the password to the new preset.
  • The sheet with the progress bar could get stuck when the archive window was minimized during a lengthy operation.

BetterZip 3.1.2 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a security vulnerability in the included Quick Look generator.
  • Choosing a save or extract preset from the menu didn’t work under certain conditions.
  • Extracting files while the preview for the right sidebar was still being generated could result in an empty file.
  • Fixed two rare crashers.

BetterZip 3.1.1 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Bug Fixes

  • Zip and 7z archives would extract with the current daylight saving time setting instead of the setting on the file date.
  • Save as multi-volume showed an error message on reloading after the save, although no errors occurred.
  • The “create individual archives” setting now affects the “Compress with BetterZip” service.
  • When using the password manager with the setting “Always try passwords”, rar archives with header encryption lead to an error.
  • Added a few missing Chinese strings.

BetterZip 3.1 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

New Features

  • Added a list of file extensions that shouldn’t be opened as archives: xlsx, docx, pages, and numbers by default. Add your own on the “Hidden Settings” page in the BetterZip help.
  • Added column “Total Size” that includes the resource fork’s (._ file’s) size.
  • BetterZip now lets you drag images from your web browser and drop them directly into an archive window.
  • Added a hidden setting for choosing what to do when clicking a file in the QL panel: open the archive in BetterZip and select the clicked file, extract the file and open it, or extract the file and reveal it in Finder.
  • Added a hidden setting that allows you to activate an additional switch in extraction presets to overwrite files without warning. Don’t use this switch!
  • Added an option to the extraction presets that allows you to close the archive window after successful extraction.

Enhancements

  • The password suggestion popover annoyed me a bit, so I converted it to a drop-down button inside the password panel. I also added a hidden setting to control how many words make up a suggested password.
  • Added a hidden setting to add a folder’s contents in the root of the archive instead of the folder itself when compressing one folder through the operations queue.
  • Updated Sparkle framework to latest version.
  • Simplified the Quick Look plugin’s “simple mode” even more to allow for even larger archives (OS X imposes a memory limit on QL plugins).
  • Broken and multi-volume rar archives with missing parts are handled more gracefully and can be extracted as far as no data from the missing or broken parts is needed. BetterZip will now show you which part is missing.

Bug Fixes

  • Header encryption was dropped when re-saving rar or 7z archives that originally had it turned on.
  • Tar archives with their resource forks in extra . folders couldn’t be extracted with all extraction methods.

BetterZip 3.0.4 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Bug Fixes

  • Special folder icons were not preserved correctly in archives.
  • Automatically setting the archive’s date to the latest date of any file inside didn’t work when using Direct Mode or the “Compress with BetterZip” service.
  • The hidden setting for automatically dropping file extensions for single file archives didn’t work in Direct Mode or the “Compress with BetterZip” service.
  • “Hide BetterZip” during archive operations didn’t work in some cases.
  • I added tbz2 as recognized extension for BZip2 compressed TAR archives.
  • Fixed the column headers in preset configuration.
  • TAR archives with intermediary “.” folders couldn’t be extracted as a whole.
  • Fixed a possible crasher bug related to the file browser.

Since the Deflate64 compression method which was used for zip archives compressed with the “best, but slower” setting is not supported by Apple’s Archive Utility, I have gone back to using the normal Deflate method. You can still get this, by adding -mm=Deflate64 as an “additional parameter”.

BetterZip 3.0.3 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Bug Fixes

  • One problem I thought I fixed in version 3.0.2 was still not completely gone: When creating a zip archive with a custom extension, e.g., cbz, BetterZip would create a 7z archive instead and then fail to read it back as zip.
  • BetterZip 3.0.2 couldn’t open rar archives with password protected file listings (header encryption).
  • Setting the hidden options from the help page didn’t work in all languages.

BetterZip 3.0.2 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Enhancements

  • Added power user option to re-enable handling of AppleDouble (._) files. (See Hidden Settings in the BetterZip help).
  • Recognize .sXX file extensions for multi-volume rar archives.
  • Quick Look can now look into Corel brush libraries which are actually zip files.

Bug Fixes

  • El Capitan compatibility: Zip and 7-zip archives didn’t work. Also, BetterZip crashed a lot.
  • The password manager didn’t work correctly for RAR archives.
  • AppleScript: Saving with a preset with a set password still asked for a password.
  • Setting the number of concurrent operations didn’t work correctly.
  • When creating a zip archive with a custom extension (e.g., cbz) BetterZip would create a 7z archive instead and then fail to read it back as zip. Doh!
  • Added tbz2 and tb2 as recognized extensions for tar.bz2 files.
  • BetterZip would go to sleep during an archive operation, when the system shut off the display. App Nap is now prevented.
  • BetterZip would crash, when a part of a multi-volume archive was opened while the exact same archive was already extracting with the operations queue.
  • The QL generator window only offered the default, not any user-defined presets.

BetterZip 3.0.1 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

Enhancements

  • Clicking the toolbar button “Save” for an existing archive now saves it instead of using the default toolbar button preset to re-save it. If you don’t want this new behavior, you can stay with the old one by switching it on the “Hidden Settings” page in the BetterZip help.
  • Included the latest unrar library 5.2.7.

Bug Fixes

  • BetterZip could crash when extracting archives with the operations queue.
  • On OS X 10.9 zip and 7z archives couldn’t be quick looked in the Finder.
  • Canceling Direct Mode toggling via the toolbar didn’t work correctly.
  • Fixed a superfluous error message when extracting a folder while also selecting its contents.
  • The progressbar didn’t always update correctly when saving archives.
  • Compressing files by dropping them on the queue window was broken.
  • Password handling was not working correctly in some situation.

BetterZip 3.0 (for macOS 10.9 and later)

New Features

  • The new Direct Mode speeds up working with large archives by making archive preparation and recompression obsolete.
  • Extensive Apple Script support.
  • Support for XZ archives.
  • Integrated the BetterZip Quick Look Generator.
  • Extract the whole archive or single files from the Quick Look generator.
  • Display, add, and update archive comments for ZIP and RAR formats.
  • BetterZip 3 adds a password generator which suggests strong passwords whenever you need them.
  • Open, extract, and quick look winmail.dat files.
  • Open, extract, and modify ePub files.
  • Open, extract, and quick look(!) Apple disk images (DMG files).
  • Add custom filename extensions that BetterZip handles.
  • Test archives using the operations queue.
  • Add column file status and icon badges to show whether items have been modified (replaced, edited, moved, …)

Enhancements

  • Support for the OS X notification center.
  • Added a “create folder” option for archives with only one root item.
  • The updated visual style better fits in with Yosemite’s look and there’s Retina imagery throughout.
  • Added a hidden setting to show hidden files and folders in the save/open panels (Ninja abound).
  • A new page in the help system collects all available hidden settings for convenient access.
  • Allow filenames to contain ? and *.
  • Audible feedback when extracting files by dragging and dropping.
  • Mac items, e.g., AppleDouble ._ files are now displayed in gray and cannot be selected or manipulated on their own, because that doesn’t make sense anyway.
  • RAR and 7z formats now have an additional compression factor that creates solid archives. With this setting, multiple files are compressed together, often leading to even higher compression ratio. The disadvantage is that extracting individual files is significantly slower as are archive updates in direct mode.
  • Moved passwords from save presets to password manager.