NWA-PCUG 11/2000 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 WinZip 8.0 A Software Review by Pete Theisen Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. If you are like I am, you have more files than you know what to do with. The "My Files" subdirectory on my ancient 486/50 notebook is 4.63 megabytes as of this writing. It will be 4.64 megabytes when I save this file. Of course, the upgraded hard disk is 6 gigabytes so I will be able to save it. But what happens when I want to back up the files or move them to another computer? I know....copy them subdirectory by subdirectory to floppy disks! I have done it that way, you may have done that too. What if there were a way to put them all on one disk? There is - WinZip 8.0! WinZip 8.0 rewrites your files in a compressed version called an archive which takes up less space to fit conveniently on a floppy disk. If the compressed archive is still too big for a floppy disk, not to worry. WinZip 8.0 will write such an archive to span successive disks - as many as it takes. All you need is WinZip 8.0 and enough disks. If you don't have a CD burner, and even if you do, this is a great way to move files. I think that floppy disks are still more portable than CDs. A 3.5" floppy disk will fit into your shirt pocket, try that with a standard CD! Of course, the compressed archive file can go on any media or over the wire. When the file is compressed, it takes less space or less bandwidth. Developed in 1986 by the recently deceased Phil Katz, the PKZip format of file compression finds its latest incarnation in WinZip 8.0. This latest version is a Windows only program, and does not include the PKZip and PKUNZip programs in their DOS versions. The same functions are available however, in the "Make .Exe File" option in the "Actions" menu. Using this function makes an archive file that can be used on a computer that doesn't have WinZip 8.0. It had better have Windows 95 or later though! When I reviewed the 6.3 version of WinZip in the March 1998 issue, I quibbled about my not being able to span directories when creating an archive. It turned out to be possible in the old version, but it took some figuring out. There is no such problem with this version. In fact, you don't even have to have WinZip running to do this, you can go right from Windows Explorer or My Computer. Just select your directory and select "Add to Zip" from the "File" menu. That's what I did. I selected "MyFiles" in Windows Explorer's right panel and then selected "Add to Zip" which appears on the "File" menu when WinZip 8.0 is installed. WinZip 8.0 started itself and popped up a dialogue box asking me to name my archive. I changed the "C" to "A" in the default name and clicked on the "Add" button. That old 486 cranked away for about a minute and a half and I had my archive on the floppy disk, named MyFiles. Every file in every directory and subdirectory was included in the archive. It did not, however, preserve the directory structure. Then I noticed that there is an option to do that in the dialogue box and I hadn't checked it. I tried it again with the box checked. This produced perfect results. When the archive was unzipped or "extracted" the directory structure was identical to what it had been. The new version also zips e-mail attachments without leaving Explorer, works with MIME files and includes an automatic theme and screen saver installer. WinZip's parent company also has a new name - WinZip Computing, Inc. I don't know if this change is the result of Mr. Katz's demise or the result of some other reason. It used to be called Nico Mak Computing, Inc. The address is the same: P.O. Box 540, Mansfield, CT 06268, www.winzip.com. The price is unchanged, still $29 for the registered version. If you buy 200 copies it is $6 each, and there are price breaks for various other quantities as well. The shareware version is free. I tried the 7.0 shareware version last year. It seems to me that you have to reinstall the shareware version every time you use it, a nuisance. Send in the $29 and get the registered version. : Copyright 2000. This article is from the October 2000 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277- 1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/ The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,600+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program. See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.