Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
Mac OS X offer robust livelihood for uncompressing file archives in a wide assortment of formats , but it does n’t support all archive formatting . You also ca n’t apply OS X ’s puppet to selectively pull single file from an archive — it ’s an all - or - nothing action at law .
Zipegis a free service program that ’s useful to keep around as a complement to OS X ’s built - in features . For starters , Zipeg supports zip , 7 - zip , rar , BZip2 , GNU zip , tgz , tar , arj , LHA / LZH , LZC , cab , chm , ear , war , CMBR , and cbz archive formats . The programme also underpin multi - part archives ; just open up the first part in Zipeg , and as long as the other component part are in the same folder , Zipeg will mechanically unpack them as well .
But the feature film that will make Zipeg appeal to many Mac users is the ability to preview the contents of an archive and extract only those file you want or need . Just drop an archive onto the Zipeg ikon , or utilize the unfastened command , and Zipeg displays the contents of that archive to the right . If the archive contains subfolders , clicking on a folder displays that folder ’s contents . Select the files you want to extract and sink in on the Extract clitoris . Zipeg will pull up those file and save them to the location you ’ve chosen in the program ’s preferences : on the background , in your Documents folder , in the same folder as the original archive , or in the last destination you used .
need to roll in the hay more about a particular file before decide whether or not to extract it ? go for the black eye cursor over it ; after a short hold , a tooltip will appear providing more information , including a preview if the file is an image . If the pop - up preview is n’t expectant enough , or if you desire to preview a non - image file , select the file and press the Preview button . This open up the actual filing cabinet in whatever your nonremittal covering is for that file cabinet case .
Zipeg includes multilingual support , and you may configure the program to be the default program for any or all patronise archive formats ; this allows you to double - tap any archive and have it open in Zipeg .
Zipeg ’s not the most beautiful program out there — its windows feel a morsel kludgy — and it ’s not as full - featured as the excellentBetterZip , but it works well . And it ’s gratis .
Want to stay up - to - date with the latest Gems ? Sign up for the Mac Gems newssheet for a hebdomadary due east - post summary of Gems reviews sent straight to your inbox .
Our 186 - page Mac Gems Superguide is a unquestionable greatest hits of Mac Gems . It ’s available as a PDF download , PDF on CD - ROM , or as a printed book . Learn more about the Mac Gems Superguide .
[ Dan Frakes is a Macworld elderly editor in chief . ]
