Optimize archive on Context Menu

[newdles]

1. Self extracting .7z archives. This isn’t a must at all but surely would be nice. If it never gets added it’s not really a big deal as freeware software (7zip file manager) already have that of course. However, it’s always been a great thought of mine to be able to get rid of winrar and all the other archiving tools to have just one that does everything

2. Rar spanning. Unfortunately, I’m unsure if this is a copyrighted format or not for compression. If it’s not, it would kick winrar out the door specially since winrar is already more expensive with WAYYY less features.

3. Batch compression. When I bought PowerArchiver, this was the reason why. Before then I had always relied on Xp’s built in zipping feature or some other freeware utility that did a good enough job for me. After building a serchable database of files (over 30,000), I realized that zipping the files would be extremely beneficial to my server use and 56k downloaders.

However, compressing 30,000 individual files isn’t a fun thing to do one at a time. So I bought PowerArchiver and found out that it added the full file name + extension. For example, blah.dll and sand.ocx compressed with PowerArchivers batch compression options ended up being labelled blah_dll.zip and sand_dll.zip. This is ok but it would have made my database completely in need of a 100% workover. Ended up buying Batch Zip toolkit to do the job. Anyway… it would just be nice to have built in batch compression so that if you batch zip “x” amount of files, it doesn’t keep the full file name + extension but rather just the first part of the file name + the extension.

4. File explorer options and how PowerArchiver handles file compression. Unfortunately, when you open PowerArchiver, you cannot select a group of files and then click a “Compress” button that leads to a new options menu letting you select how you’d like to compress the file(s). PowerArchiver doesn’t even list the files in a directory unless they’re supported archiving formats.

5. Configuration option descriptions. I consider myself pretty smart and generally know what options do what without ever reading the help files. Unfortunately, there are a few options that I don’t know what they do without taking a look into the help files. What would be extremely nice is the ability to get the option(s) information on mouseover or right click. This is not necessary at all but just a user friendly benefit.

Sorry for the extremely long post. This is the second time I’ve had to type it though :( Had a BSOD right in the middle of typing this because of Norton being an idiot. But if any of these options are in the works or even thought of/planned for the future, that would be great. If not, no big deal but it sure would be nice to only require one archiving utility that literally does it all :)

[deipotent]

Regarding (5) I’d like to see context help (ie. ‘?’ button in the window title bar) in the Configuration dialog and the Add dialog. Context Help is a vastly under-used (and under-rated) feature of Windows which gives quick access to help on program options without the need to search through the on-line help manual.

[TBGBe]

Let’s see…

1. 7zip sfx:
   http://www.powerarchiver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30

2. Rar compression
   It is copyright format. See also http://www.powerarchiver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44&highlight=compression

3. Batch Tool - output naming convention.
   This was on the old wishlist forum (now lost). The preservation of the extension was requested as an option within the Batch Tool - I (for one) need to keep the current naming methodology. Cannot hurt to raise it again on this new forum :D
   See also http://www.powerarchiver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62&highlight=Batch
   regarding Batch compressing Folders (as well as files) - this impacts on the naming.

4. File explorer options
   Not sure I follow. Using Windows Explorer Shell (Compress with Options) you can do this now :confused:

5. Expanded/extended Help
   Yes, more (context sensitive) Help is always a good thing.
   Although I prefer deipotent’s suggestion of the “windows standard” ? button.

[spwolf]

Few things:
3. You mean to name test.txt > test.zip? Problem with that comes if you have both test.txt and test.doc, what happens then? At the end, it is easy to solve with few more options, but they do make PowerArchiver much harder to use for inexperienced user, when 15 options on current screen might be a bit too overwhelming.

4. You are probably talking about Explorer View in PA, we will be improving it as well for 9.1.

5. Tooltips are nice… Probably in one of the future major revisions of PA.

thanks,

[newdles]

4. File explorer options
   Not sure I follow. Using Windows Explorer Shell (Compress with Options) you can do this now

What I mean is that when you open PowerArchiver and navigate to say c:\windows, the only files you’ll see are files of a compressed format. What would be nice is that if when you opened PowerArchiver and navigated to any folder, it would show all files and folders inside that directory so that you could select all the files and folders and then choose to compress them and it would compress them recursively :)

3. You mean to name test.txt > test.zip? Problem with that comes if you have both test.txt and test.doc, what happens then? At the end, it is easy to solve with few more options, but they do make PowerArchiver much harder to use for inexperienced user, when 15 options on current screen might be a bit too overwhelming.

Yes, I do understand that. There could be a way to have the best of both worlds for the less experienced users and the more experienced users as well. Maybe set it to default to name files in the way it does now but have the option (which isn’t selected by default) to batch compress files where abc.txt and 123.dll are compressed to abc.zip and 123.zip respectively.

Oh, and I thought of another feature that would work extremely nice. You know when you right click on a file and go through the entire process of compressing the file… well what if there was an option to delete the file after compressing. That way you could compress a large group of files and not have to delete them all yourself after the compression is over. Maybe add it as a checkbox :)

[TBGBe]

File explorer options:
OK, that is Explorer View in PA - see spwolf reply to #4

well what if there was an option to delete the file after compressing.

To choose options on Right Click compression - select “Compress with Options”
Then choose “move” instead of “add”.

[newdles]

Ahhh ok, I see that now. However, it doesn’t apply to 7zip files which is what I use PowerArchiver for 98% of the time. Would be nice to have that option with 7zip too :)

Just a suggestion though, maybe convert that word “Move” to “Delete”. When you move files, people think “well, I’ll have to move them to another directory and I’ll tell it where to move the files to.”. When you delete files, people think “these files will then go to the recycle bin”. Just a suggestion though.

[TBGBe]

@newdles:

Just a suggestion though, maybe convert that word “Move” to “Delete”. When you move files, people think “well, I’ll have to move them to another directory and I’ll tell it where to move the files to.”. When you delete files, people think “these files will then go to the recycle bin”. Just a suggestion though.

Move is the correct terminology.

Compare moving file(s) from “C:” in Windows Explorer

a) Select the file(s)
b) Select the destination
c) Select “Move”

The file(s) are copied to destination and then deleted {from "C:}

In Archiving file(s) from “C:” in Windows Explorer

a) Select the file(s)
b) Select “Options”
c) Select the destination (Archive Filename)
d) Select “Move”

The file(s) are copied to Archive and then deleted {from "C:}