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Apple took pity on us when it developed OS X.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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Making OS X downloads behave, Part 2: ZIPs and SITs


May 4, 2005


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, The Post-Standard

   Many programs you can download for OS X arrive as DMG files, files that fool your Mac into treating them as if they were real disks. These virtual disks are easy to handle and can even be ejected from the desktop just like CDs or DVDs can.
   I explained some of the advantages of DMG files in last week's column. This week, I'll show you how to deal with the alphabet-soup collection of other downloads -- ZIPs and SITs.
   Apple took pity on you and me when it developed OS X. Instead of expecting us to figure out the mysteries of compressed downloads, Apple built a file-and-folder extractor into the operating system. This extractor automatically opens file archives so you can see what's inside them.
   There are more types of archive files than you'd ever want to count, but luckily Mac users only have to deal with a few of them. There's the nearly universal ZIP archive, which nearly all Windows download sites and many Mac sites use. ("ZIP" doesn't stand for anything, but it's supposed to remind us of "zipping up" a a bag to store something.) There's the SIT (or Stuffit) archive, first designed for Macs 20 years ago but usable by other systems, too. And there are some old Unix file formats such as TAR (tape archive).
   Your OS X Mac can handle all of them. All you do is double click on the archive file. OS X's archive manager creates a folder with the same name as the file. The new folder will be located in the same main folder holding the archive.
   (In other words, if you have an archive named "International Calendar.zip" in your Download folder, the OS X archive manager will create a folder named "International Calendar" inside the Download folder. As I urged last week, you should always direct your downloads to their own folder and not put them on your desktop. As you can see, for each archive you download, you'll have a new folder with the same name. Your desktop will be a tangle of file and folder icons if you don't put downloads in their own location.)
   After OS X extracts the archive into its own folder, move the original archive file into a holding area. I keep a folder called "Done" in my Download folder for just that kind of storage. If I need to get at the archive again, I know where to find it. Every few weeks i burn the contents of that folder to a blank CD or data DVD. That way I always have a copy of every file I download. If the site that offered the download goes belly up, I'll still have the file for future use.
   If you're like me, you're probably tempted to run downloaded programs from their folder in your Downloads directory. But that's not a good idea. Read the documentation that comes with the program before doing anything else. Then, if you want to try the software, move the folder to your own Applications folder in your home folder. (In last week's article, I gave my reasons for creating an Applications folder in the home folder and told how to do it.)
   Then give the program a tryout. If you like it, keep it where it is. If you don't want to keep it on your Mac, check the documentation that came with the program for anything special you have to do to get rid of it, then either trash the folder named for the program or follow the instructions, if any, for uninstalling it. (Normally you simply drag a program or its enclosing folder to the trash, but some applications have extras you need to get rid of, too.)
   Make sense so far? Here's a bonus tip. Open your home folder and drag your own Applications folder to the right end of the dock. Drop it there. OS X will create a launcher for every item in that folder. do the same for the main Applications folder, too, if it's not already there.
   Click on the dock icon for the Applications folder and hold the button down. OS X will pop open a launch menu. It's simplicity itself. Just slide your pointer to any item you'd like to open and let go of the button.