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Daily Mac App: iZip Archiver
Simple handling of compressed archives is a breeze on a Mac, simply secondary-click and hit "Compress". Likewise opening a zip file is as easy as a double-click. But what happens when you want to get a bit more advanced with your compression archives? That's where something like iZip Archiver steps in. iZip Archiver is available from both the Mac App Store and directly from the developer's site. The version available in the Mac App Store is a fairly limited application, but the free version available from izip.com allows you to do a couple of things that your Mac can't do natively, even with the likes of The Unarchiver, TinyExpander or Stuffit Expander installed. Essentially iZip Archiver will allow you to create archives in .zip format, secure them with a passcode and share them via files.com. That bit of the app doesn't really add anything to the default Mac-archiving experience. But what it will do is allow you to open and edit archives without extracting them first. Opening an archive mounts it like an external drive or .dmg, and allows you to look through the contents, open, edit, rename or extract single files, as well as add to or delete items from the archive. In this way you can add files you'd forgotten to zip up, or remove files you no longer want in your archive without having to unzip and re-zip them. For small archives it only saves a little time, but for really massive archives, skipping the extraction step will save you heaps of time. iZip Archiver supports ZIP, ZIPX, RAR, TAR, TAR.GZ and 7ZIP files, so most common archives are covered. There are other alternatives like BetterZip 2 and Stuffit Deluxe to name just two, but most of them aren't free. So if you're looking for a free tool for the occasional archive modification, iZip Archiver will do the job for you for nothing. The restricted iZip Archiver is available from the Mac App Store, while the more fully featured version is available directly from the developer's site.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: BetterZip 2
Mac OS X has had a zip utility built into it for some time. For extracting stuff other than Zip files, the Unarchiver's your friend. But what about actually compressing and managing archives? That's where BetterZip 2 steps in. BetterZip 2 allows you to open archives without first extracting them, allowing you to see precisely what's inside them before processing them. Often you've got loads of files compressed together, but you only want one -- BetterZip allows you to extract single files from archives without having to extract the whole lot, which can save you time and disk space if it's a really large archive. You can also update archives, adding files into an already compressed archive without having to extract the whole lot first and then re-compressing them together. BetterZip is able to open and extract most common formats, from ZIP to TAR, RAR to JAR, it's got you covered (for a full list see the MAS listing). BetterZip can also compress files into six archive types natively (ZIP, TAR, GZip or BZip2 compressed TAR, XAR and 7-Zip), as well as RAR archives courtesy of an external RAR command-line utility. You can also secure your ZIP, 7-Zip and RAR files with passwords, with WinZip compatible AES-256 encrypted archives at your fingertips. The US$19.99 BetterZip brings a full archive manager to your Mac. It's fast, easy to use and handles all but the most obscure archives. I would like to see the ability to create a few more archive types, but native ZIP and 7-Zip support will see you though most of your archiving needs. BetterZip 2 is available from the Mac App Store for $19.99 with a trial available from the developer's site.
BetterZip Quick Look Generator shows contents of archive files
In response to an article about Archive Utility's preferences, a reader asked if there was a way to show the contents of an archived file. I used to have a QuickLook plugin for this, but it stopped working at some point and I had never gotten around to finding a new one. The BetterZip Quick Look generator works fine for me under Snow Leopard, and supports QuickLook for the contents of a huge number of various archives. According to the website, it supports ZIP, TAR, GZip, BZip2, ARJ, LZH, ISO, CHM, CAB, CPIO, RAR, 7-Zip, DEB, RPM, StuffIt's SIT, DiskDoubler, BinHex, and MacBinary. Or, to put it another way, it supports all the formats you are ever likely to come across, plus about 5 more. Simply download the file (from the page above), and install it either to /Library/QuickLook/ (if you want the plugin to work for anyone who logs into the machine) or ~/Library/QuickLook/ if you want it to just work for the current user. If you have never installed a QuickLook plugin before, you may need to create that folder. Note that although the feature is called "Quick Look" the folder name should not have a space in it. Then you need to restart the Quick Look framework. This either requires waiting (if you're the patient kind), logging out/rebooting, restarting the Finder (according to the website, but that didn't work for me), or open Terminal and type qlmanage -r which is what I did, and it started to work immediately (you should see a message "qlmanage: resetting quicklookd" after you enter the command). BetterZip QuickLook Generator is a free plugin by the folks at MacItBetter.com who also make a $20 program called BetterZip which gives you a whole host of options for creating and managing archives. I haven't used it myself, but it looks pretty impressive if you want some advanced options for archives. Our own Brett Terpstra reviewed it back in May if you'd like more information. Dave Caolo also mentioned BetterZip Quick Look Generator in his 2008 article 10 ways to get the most out of Quick Look. If you want to learn more about additional Quick Look plugins, that's a good place to start.
Friday Favorite: BetterZip
BetterZip is a utility I might not use every day, but I'm very thankful for it when I need it. It's an archive/compression utility which handles a broad array of archive formats, including ZIP, TAR, GZip, BZip2, and some that you rarely see on a Mac, such as 7-Zip and RAR formats. While the unarchiver built in to OS X can handle quite a few of these formats -- and is what I use on a day-to-day basis -- BetterZip adds a few very useful tools to the mix. BetterZip opens or creates your archive in a file-list format, and you can drag files between Finder and BetterZip to add to or extract from the archive. Creating new archives is just a "File->New" or Command-N away, and you can save them in Zip, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, 7-Zip or XAR formats. While the Finder lets you easily create archives by right-clicking a file selection and choosing "Archive," it doesn't allow you to easily edit the archive or add to it. For quick compression of one or more files for emailing, it's fine and I use it regularly, but for larger archives that need to be more flexible, BetterZip is an excellent choice. BetterZip also makes it easy to search large archives for a single file you're looking for. Read on for more reasons BetterZip is my Friday Favorite ...
BetterZip is a better zip
With zip support built into OS X a third-party compression utility has to bring something special to the table, and BetterZip does. Basically it allows you to open and inspect archives without expanding the whole thing first. This can be useful if you only want a few of the files that are compressed within an archive. It also does compression naturally, including encryption, splitting large archives, and stripping out Mac specific hidden files to make archives more cross-platform..BetterZip supports a bunch of formats which should cover just about anything you'll run into on the net: ZIP, SIT, TAR, GZip, BZip2, RAR, 7-Zip, CPIO, ARJ, LZH/LHA, JAR, WAR, CAB, ISO, CHM, RPM, DEB, NSIS, BIN, HQX, DD. Finally, the developer has also put together a great Quick Look plugin that supports most of the same formats. BetterZip is normally $19.95 and a demo is available but as it happens it's on sale at MacUpdate Promo until Monday evening for half-off ($9.95)
