ArchiveView

StuffIt allows you to view the contents of a StuffIt or Zip archive, and allows you to extract individual files without expanding the whole archive.

Viewing the Contents of an Archive: To view the contents of a StuffIt (.sit) or Zip (.zip) archive use the Folders Tab to navigate to the folder that contains the archive you want to view. You can then drag the archive from the Folder Contents panel to the View drop area. You can also choose to have StuffIt and Zip archives open in ArchiveView when you double click them. You will be given the chance to set this preference the first time you double click a Zip or StuffIt archive. You can change this setting later, in the General Tab of the Options sheet.

Navigating folders within an Archive: In the same way that a hard drive can contain multiple nested folders, so an archive can also contain a folder structure made up of nested folders. To open a folder in an archive, double click the folder in ArchiveView. To move out of the folder (ie move up a level in the directory) double click the "Up a Level" folder.

Fig: Archive open in ArchiveView

Extracting Files from an Archive:  The Extract Files dialog is used when you select files in an open archive and click the "Extract Files" button, or when you right click a file in ArchiveView and choose Extract from the context menu. The dialog displays a list of the selected files, and allows you to browse for a location on your hard drive to which they should be saved.

Adding Files to an Archive: When an archive is open in ArchiveView, you can add files and folders to an archive by dragging and dropping them from a Windows Explorer Window.

You can also Add Files to an archive using the Folders tab. Select the folder that contains the files you want to add in the Folders tab, and then drag and drop the files from the Folder Contents window to Archive View.

Creating StuffIt X archives in ArchiveView

When creating a StuffIt X archive in ArchiveView, there are some special situation that can occur. StuffIt X archives support several features that result in the archive becoming Read Only, these are error correction and Text Encoding. These attributes can only be applied after you have finished adding files to an archive. If you have configured the Advanced Format Options dialog so that StuffIt X archives are created with either Text Encoding or Error correction, these attributes will only be applied when you close the archive.

When you see this dialog after closing a StuffIt X archive, click "Yes" to process the archive and apply Text Encoding and/or Error Correction. Click No to save the archive without these attributes.

If you re-open the archive you have just created, you will notice that ArchiveInfo now describes the archive as "Read Only". This means that you can view the contents of the archive, and extract individual files from it, but you cannot add new items or delete existing ones.

Next: Add Files Dialog

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