TyphoonZip Help
Help and User Guide
Why TyphoonZip?
What is a zip file?
Using TyphoonZip
Features
Typhoon Zip allows you to unzip, edit, and create zip files with an easy to use interface. Drag and drop files directly to or from a zip file. Right click any file on your computer to see Zip options, including zipping and unzipping of files or folders and zipping and emailing any selection of files or folders. TyphoonZip also supports RAR files and 64 bit zips.
A zip file is a special type of file that compresses and archives a collection of files to make them easier and more secure to send and store.
A zip file is an archive. It contains a set of other files with information about what sub-folders the files are stored in. Any folder information stored in the zip is relative to the folder where the zip file is located.
Zip uses file compression which is a clever way to encode a file so it uses less disk space. Zip uses lossless compression so when a file is expanded (unzipped) back to it’s original state the bits are exactly the same as the original. No information is lost by zipping and unzipping a file. The mp3 format is an example of a lossy compression process. Zip is lossless.
Some files can be compressed more than others. It depends on the efficiency of the file format. JPG, MP3 and AVI files are already packed pretty tight, so they will not get much smaller when zipped, but file formats like TXT, WAV and BMP can be compressed quite a bit. Typhoon Zip will display the Size (original file size), Packed (compressed file size) and the Ratio(packed/original size) of zipped files.
The Windows file extension for zip files is .zip. When TyphoonZip is installed it will associate .zip files with TyphoonZip so that when you double-click on a zip file it will launch TyphoonZip. You can also right-click on a zip file to access TyphoonZip for easy zipping and unzipping.
TyphoonZip also supports RAR and 64bit(zip) file compression and will also be associated with those file types when it is installed.
You can launch the program by clicking the TyphoonTools icon in the system tray and selecting TyphoonZip or you can launch the program by selecting the TyphoonZip icon in the TyphoonDesktop launch bar. TyphoonZip can be used both from the program’s main interface as well as by utilizing Windows integration and using right-click menus.
TyphoonZip Main Interface
Windows has some built-in facility to handle zip files but Typhoon Zip makes working with zip files even easier. When using TyphoonZip you can double-click on a zip file to open it. Then click on UnZip Files to copy the contents of the zip to your hard disk.
New Zip
Select New… to create a new zip file. This will bring up the New Zip dialogue for you to give a name to the new zip file. Browse to the folder where you want to create the new zip file, enter a name for the zip and select Open. This will create a new zip file. This new zip file has no other files in it yet, so the Add Zip dialogue is shown next. Next, select files to be added to the zip file. Hold down the CTRL key to select more than one file. Typhoon Zip will show the progress of creating the zip and then display the contents of the new zip file.
Open Zip
Select Open… to open an existing zip file. TyphoonZip will display the contents of the zip file in its main dialogue. Once a zip is opened, a list of information about each item in the zip is displayed, which includes the file’s name, the file type, date modified, size, ratio, packed size, and path.
Unzip Files
Once you have opened a zip file you can unzip the files to your hard disk. This is also called extracting files for a zip. When you select Unzip… you will see a dialogue called UnZip All Files with several options. Click UnZip to unzip files to the same folder that the zip file in in, or select … to browse your files and unzip to another folder.
Unzip Selected Files Only
If this is option is selected then Typhoon Zip will unzip only those files you have selected. You can select just some of the files by holding down the ALT key and clicking on the file names. If this option is not selected then TyphoonZip will unzip all of the files in the zip.
Overwrite Existing Files
If this option is selected and there is a file in the zip that has the same name as a file in the destination folder, then TyphoonZip will overwrite (copy over) the existing file with the new one. If this option is not selected then TyphoonZip will not overwrite existing files that have the same name and location.
Use Folder Names
If an item in the zip file has a sub-folder associated with it, and this option is selected, then a sub-folder will be created and the item will be placed in that sub-folder. If this option is not selected then folder names will not be used and all items in the zip will be unzipped to the same folder.
Open Folder When Done
If this option is selected then TyphoonZip will open a Windows file browser showing the contents of the folder where the files have just been unzipped.
Add Files
Select Add Files to put additional files in an existing zip file. Clicking on the Add Files button brings up the Add dialog. Select files by holding down the CTRL key while clicking on files. When you are done select the Open button and the progress of the zipping process is displayed. A large list of files, or even a single large file may take some time to zip. When it is done adding files the contents of the zip is updated and displayed. You can also drag and drop files from your desktop onto TyphoonZip’s main interface to add them to a zip.
Add Folders
Selecting Add Folders will bring up a Browse for Folder dialog where you can select a foler to be added to the zip. The zip will contain folder information for these items. A zip with folder information will put the items in the appropriate sub-folder when unzipped. You can also drag and drop folders from your desktop onto TyphoonZip’s main dialog to add them to a zip. You can even select multiple folders from your desktop and drop them on TyphoonZip to add them to the zip.
More Tools
Clicking on the More Tools button will open the TyphoonToools web site in your web browser where you can download more tools, upload big files, download free wallpaper, listen to Typhoon Radio, and more.
Selecting Multiple Files
When browsing files to add or delete from a zip you can hold down the CTRL and click on a file name to select mutliple files. Holding down the SHIFT key will select all items between the first SHIFT-Click and the second SHIFT-Click.
To select multiple items on your desktop click the left mouse button and while keeping it held down drag out an area on your desktop. Items within this rectangular area will be selected. Use the SHIFT key while dragging an area on the desktop to add or remove items from the selection.
Deleting Files from a Zip
When a zip is opened the items in the zip will be displayed. Select the files you want to remove from the zip and press the Delete key, or select Delete Files from Zip.. from the Zip menu. This will remove files from the list of items in the zip. It does not delete files from your computer.
Using the mouse to right-click on a file gives you extra options on what to do with it. If you right-click on a zip file you will see that Typhoon Tools provides some convenient options.
Open with TyphoonZip
Brings up the main dialog just as if you double-clicked on the file.
UnZip to…
Brings up another dialog that allows you to choose the folder to extract (unzip) the files to, whether to overwrite existing files that have the same filename as those in the zip, and whether to use the sub-folder information (if any) that the zip file contains.
UnZip Here
This option will unzip to same folder the zip file is in without any further dialogues.
UnZip to foldername\
This option looks at the name of the zip file and will create a folder with that name and unzip to that folder.
Drag and Drop
You can drag and drop files onto the Typhoon Zip main dialog to add them to a new or existing zip. Start TyphoonZip and click on the New Zip button. This will bring up the New Zip dialog. Enter a name for the new zip for naming the zip and choosing a location where the zip will be created. Select files on the desktop or within Windows Explorer and right-click on the selected files to see options for zipping.
