When working with large files is important to be able to use the data compression, so that they will occupy the minimal storage space. For processing such data, they must be restored in a decompressed form, recognized by applications that manage these types of information. WinZip application, for example, is designed to help users work with archive files. Archives are files which contain other files, compressed by a compression algorithm.
The compression process reduces the file size so as to occupy a minimum space and can be copied on low capacity media (diskettes). Currently WinZip is the most widely used application for managing archives. This provides a series of operations, among which include: administration of archive files (contains operations like: creating, opening, copying, moving, renaming and deleting cache files); sending e-mails from your archives; updating the cache, adding new files and deleting old files from the archive; extracting files from the archive; viewing files in the archive (operation which is performed by double-clicking on the file name); password protection and more.
WinZip has a structure of a typical Windows window containing the title line, buttons to minimize, restore / maximize and close the window, the main menu, a bar for tools, a link to the manufacturer’s site and the status line. Below we briefly present the most important actions that can be made on the archives and files contained by them.
The opening an existing archive can be done by making a mouse click on the Open button in the toolbar or by selecting Open from the File menu of the archive. This opens the Open Archive dialog box that allows selection of an archive file. After opening an archive, you see the files contained in it and information about them (name, date of last modification, the size before compression, the compression ratio, the file size after compression – when the file is packed, subdirectory path where the file will be extracted) is displayed in the area of the WinZip window. This information can be viewed by using horizontal and vertical scroll bars, if they exceed the window size. The files displayed in the work area can be sorted by any of the above types of information by making a mouse click on the header of the list (for example, click on the Modified and sort the files descending by date).
Any files displayed in the area of the WinZip window can be viewed through the associated application after performing a double click with the mouse on the name. For example, a Word document (which has as extension .doc) from the archive will open with a double click in the document editor.
Extracting files from archive is done by selecting the desired area of the WinZip window and extract the file using the activation button on the toolbar (or choosing Extract from the Actions menu). WinZip allows the user to indicate the directory where to submit those files. In case of the files which have been extracted, you can see a sequence of directories specified in the Path column. This is the structure that was created in the directory chosen by the user for extracting files.
If you open the archive file, you will see some options: “install” or “setup” (this allows the installation of applications). By selecting the option Install from the Actions menu, all files will be extracted into a temporary directory and the installer execution will be launched, after which the temporary directory and the files will be deleted. Creating a new archive is done by clicking with the mouse on the New button in the toolbar or by selecting New Archive from the File menu, then the user must specify the name of the new archive. The created archive will initially be empty, the user has the possibility of adding later files.
Adding a file is done by opening the archive and by clicking with the mouse on the Add button in the toolbar or by selecting Add from the Options menu. In the Add dialog box, select the file that you want to be added to the archive.
The Add button has several options. You can specify a password to protect the file (s) added and the path of the directories (folders). After selecting the option, you must specify to what files you added those passwords. By default, adding a file to archive leads to its deletion in the place of origin. However, the user may require that this operation to take place in another way, without deletion, by selecting Move from the Action list.
Eliminating archive files is done by selecting the files that are to be deleted and choosing Delete from the menu called Actions. Through archiving (compressing or packaging) of a file, the file size is reduced using an algorithm. The archive allows a better management of space on your hard disk or floppy disk. A zipped file can be read directly by the computer, but it must first be extracted. For this reason it is recommended to archive files used less often or very large ones, and transfer data over the Internet or e-mail in this way, because it substantially increases the speed of data transmission.
