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Why Don't Ya'll Just ZIP It...

by WillR
15 replies
Why people why?

Product creators, designers, coders, copywriters, all those people who are sending ZIP files back and forth over the Internet, why do majority of you NOT understand how to ZIP files correctly?!

How many times have you unzipped a file to find it opens up saying you can't unzip it because the folder inside the zip folder has the same name as the zip file itself...

OR

Once unzipped, the resulting folder has a folder inside it ie: the files are two levels deep.

The correct way to zip files from a folder is NOT to click on that folder and zip the entire folder but to instead open up the folder, select all the files inside that folder, and zip the files.

That way your customer ends up with one folder on their desktop and all the files inside that folder.

Is it really that hard people?!

How do you zip?

(This daily rant was brought to you by ME.)
#yall #zip
  • Profile picture of the author Tech19
    guilty......
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  • Profile picture of the author MattCatania
    WinZIP was sooo 1990's...

    All the cool kids use WinRAR nowadays. :p

    For entertainment value, I thought I'd also add this in:
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    To make others lives more difficult!

    No but seriously, I think people zip files because it is easier to upload them to an email or a website in one go rather than one by one. Kinna selfish, but yeah.
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  • Profile picture of the author MattCatania
    The only thing worse than having files located two folders deep is extracting files to a specific location and having them appear individually... that's the difference between 'extract here' and 'extract to {zip file name}'.
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  • Profile picture of the author davidtong
    I bought a video WSO (short amazon review slides and stuff), the seller used folder/filenames that were over 80 characters long for folder, filename, etc... in short, every filename has a >200 character folder structure prefix... geez.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Grant
    Hey there,

    Good point and to take it one step further, my bug bear is when you get those big thud products and they have like 10 folders all with another 5 files inside all needing individual downloading and no zip file alternative in sight!

    Many of us have good broadband nowadays and can cope with 100Mb, 500Mb or larger zip files so why not?

    I know some folk would say use a plugin such as DownTheLot but I for one, cannot get to grips with that applet for whatever reason.

    I reckon there should be a protocol that if there are more than 5 files in a product, offer a zip download alternative

    Tony
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  • Profile picture of the author ERPLeadsWriter
    Originally Posted by WillR View Post

    The correct way to zip files from a folder is NOT to click on that folder and zip the entire folder but to instead open up the folder, select all the files inside that folder, and zip the files.

    That way your customer ends up with one folder on their desktop and all the files inside that folder.

    Is it really that hard people?!
    Oh so THAT'S how you do it!
    Thanks! As a copywriter myself, you have taught me a small but very convenient way to send multiple files to my colleagues (and my boss >_<;; ). Thank you! :p

    Originally Posted by WillR View Post

    How do you zip?
    I used to zip the whole folder, nuff said. >_>;;
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  • Profile picture of the author THK
    Like your thread title...lol
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by WillR View Post

    The correct way to zip files from a folder is NOT to click on that folder and zip the entire folder but to instead open up the folder, select all the files inside that folder, and zip the files.
    No, the correct way to unzip files from an archive is to drag the single folder inside to the desired location and drop it there.

    By convention, this single folder has the same name as the archive, minus the ".zip" extension that PCs use to identify the program that will open it. This is so you can easily identify which archive contained this folder.

    If you unzip the files to the wrong location, you now have a single folder in the wrong place, which you can simply drag to the right place.

    By comparison, your method of archiving the files places a series of files in the folder you designate. If this is the wrong folder, for whatever reason, you must identify and move EVERY SINGLE FILE to the desired location.

    The situation about which you are complaining is the de facto standard for ZIP archives, and has been for several years. Perhaps it is time you changed the way you unzip.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      Perhaps it is time you changed the way you unzip.
      From the sound of things I unzip the way most people do, so this still annoys me. It might not be the way it's meant to be but all that matters is the way people use it. Doing things my way works both ways. The 'proper' way doesn't seem to.
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
        "Extract to [dir name]" is a right click option with WinRar and [dir name] is defined by the name or the zip or rar file.

        This automatically creates a directory.

        Similar should exist from the actual WinZip program.

        With this option there is no need for any zip file to be more than 1 level deep.
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  • Profile picture of the author lisakleinweber
    OK, now I'm confused. At first I thought I was guilty of this, well because yes, this is how I zip. but now cdarklock says this is the way I should be doing it.

    hmmmmm.
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  • Profile picture of the author magiclouie
    Thanks for the rant and the tips.

    For those who are looking for a free tool to unzip a zip file, you may want to check this, Welcome to ZipGenius.com - ZipGenius.com

    Just thought of sharing.
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