The last post reviewed 3 alternative archiving programs, and decided on the Open Source project 7Zip. Now we are going to install it, and learn to use it.
Download and Install
The download link is here. Unless you are running Windows x64 (we think you would know it if you were), the file you want is for Windows 32 bit, either in .exe format or if you prefer the .msi Windows installer bundle. (we went with the .exe)
Clicking on the link will flip you over the Sourceforge page were the Open Source development is done for 7zip…
Choose a location on your hard drive to save the file (we use a directory that we made called simply “downloads”, and tell the download dialog box to save it there. Once the download is complete, navigate to that location (we use Windows explorer because we are old-fashioned - you may prefer the desktop icon “My Computer” as a mode of access, same thing really, just looks different)
and double click on the file you saved - probably looks like “7z457.exe”, where 7z stands for 7Zip, and 457 is the version number 4.5.7.
Follow the bouncing ball - there really is no tough questions to answer for installing 7zip, and the program will be installed. It does not generate a desktop icon, though, so you will get access to the software by navigating Start>Programs>7zip>7 Zip File Manager
The program will fire up, and is ready to use.
Easy Navigation
Incidentally, one of the easiest ways to navigate around in 7Zip is to press F9. This will give you a split panel. On the left side you can navigate directories. If you press alt-left arrow, 7Zip will show you the contents of that directory. You can see at a glance what is there without opening the directory on the left panel.
Unarchiving or Extracting
7Zip does not have fancy User’s Guides, and an elaborate illustrated help system. On the other hand, it adopts the “required task” perspective we discussed in an earlier post, and so the list of menu items is pretty self-explanatory.
We will discuss this in reverse - starting with unarchiving an existing archive, and then later, we’ll discuss making a new archive. We will do this because we expect that you already have an archive that you want to deal with.
You are looking at a screen that has large central pane, in which are two words, typically - computer, and network. If your computer is attached to a LAN, you will see network, if you are a standalone computer, you may not. For those who are accustomed to navigating their computers hard drive using the My Computer icon on the desktop, the process should be fairly familiar. if you double click on “Computer” in the large pane, it will descend a layer and offer you a list of hard drives - do it again and you are offered a list of directories on that hard drive. Navigate in this way until you locate the file that wish to unarchive. by the way, the standard word for “unarchive” is extract. Find the file, and double-click on it to open the archive. If there is more than one file, hold the shift key and hit the “+” on the numeric keyboard, or navigate Edit>Select All. Then ask for the files to be extracted, by clicking on the blue minus sign icon on the task bar above the large pane.
You will be prompted next for a place to copy the extracted file (s) to - the destination, that will look like this;
Navigate to the place that you have decided to store and work with the file(s) and select that directory. Press OK, and then OK on the extract box, and away you go. You have just extracted your files from the archive. You are now free to start using the files for whatever you have in mind.
Maintaining Compatibility
Before we discuss making archives, there is something to consider. There are a number of different schemes for compressing digital files. Some programs can read many of these schemes, some, only a couple. If you intend to ever send someone a copy of the archive you are making, it is best to make the archive with a compression schema that is very widely used - and that is the “Zip” format. It is not the best for all purposes (the 7Zip schema is denser and saves more space), but it is used by nearly everyone. So, think carefully before selecting anything other than a Zip format for your archive. This will maintain compatibility with the rest of the world.
Making a New Archive
To start with, navigate in the panel to the location where you want to store the new archive. If you wish, you can make a new folder for your archive by File>Create Folder, and, give it a name. Next navigate to the files that you wish to archive. Once you can se them, you can select them using the mouse (and holding either shift or ctrl will selecting them. When you have selected those files, simply click on Add - notice it is the bright green plus “+” sign right beside extract in the image above.. You will be presented with the following screen of options for making the archive.
- The first option is to select the schema/format for the archive - as discussed above, think carefully before using something other than Zip.
- The compression level trades off resulting file size with the time it takes to make it. Store is very fast, but large size, since there is no compression. Ultra is the smallest (densest), but that takes time.
- Update mode is generally left at Add and Replace Files
- You have the option to password protect the archive if you select 7z as the archive schema/format - but if you forget the password, you are out of luck
The rest of the options you can ignore until you really need them.
Click OK, and 7Zip will make your archive. You can exit the program when you are finished.
Other Tricks and Resources
There are lost of other little convenient tricks that 7zip will do - tasks such as deleting files from within an existing archive, renaming files within an existing archive, splitting and recombining archives to fit them on multiple CDs or Diskettes, and so on. When you get a minutes, take the time to glance over the Help section on menu commands. There are also the on-line support facilities linked to in the previous post.
Video how-to’s : here and here
Wikipedia commentary
Review and some instructions
You are now able to extract resources from archive that you have located.
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