OT ... WinZip

[Dave Horne]

I have been using WinZip for over ten years (and have paid for a registered copy). I just encountered an 'issue' that surprised me.

 

If you open, for example, a Word document under WinZip and edit that file and then decide to Save As, that 'new' file is not 'seen' by WinZip and for all purposes does not exist.

 

I have even searched to find that 'new' (renamed) document and discover that it does not exist. I've written WinZip about this and my 'suggestion' is being passed on. This 'behavior' by WinZip surprised me.

 

Am I alone here, shouldn't WinZip have 'Saved As' that new document and placed it in the same WinZip folder?

[Jazzwee]

Winzip recognizes only what is in the zip file. If you zip the file up after saving it, then it will be recognized again.

[mate stubb]

Yeah that's how it should work. That list of files you see in the winzip window is not like looking at a list of files in a directory - you are actually looking inside a single zip file.

 

You should be able to easily add that newly saved file to the zip by finding it in a regular windows explorer window where you saved it, and dragging it into the open winzip file.

[Sven Golly]

Just to be clear, Dave, what is actually happening when you open a file "from WinZip" is that the file is extracted from the archive into a temp directory, and a pointer to that file is being sent to the OS, which runs the appropriate application to deal with that file (in your case, Word).

 

To expect WinZip to monitor the directory for the extracted file, and add the file to the archive whenever it is changed, is counter-intuitive to the purpose WinZip serves. WinZip handles archiving/unarchiving; if you want to edit a file within an archive, I would much rather have to explicitly replace the file in the archive, that way I know exactly what state the file(s) are in.

 

As Moe mentioned above, you can explitly replace the file in the archive from Windows Explorer.

 

[Dave Horne]

If I edit a zipped file WinZip asks me if I want to 'update' the file when I close the archive. Is that intuitive or counterintuitive?

 

Is it really that much of a stretch for WinZip to 'Save As'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kanker.]

Is it really that much of a stretch for WinZip to 'Save As'?

Yes, because it is not a WinZip file, it is a Word file.

[Finale]

Another very interesting thing to do is to ZIP a file, then RAR the ZIP file and then ARJ the RAR file. In you followed this, you now have a ARJ file containing a RAR file containing a ZIP file containing the file you wanted to compress. It's more complicated to open, but you can save a few bytes. :grin:

[jook]

Perhaps you should attempt to understand what you are actually doing, and what you are using, before you decide how things should work or make requests for changes.

[Dave Horne]

OK, I now understand that a WinZip file is really just one file and the listing of all the 'files' within is really just an illusion created for my benefit; WinZip does not work as a conventional 'folder' from my expected point of view.

 

What I find interesting - when I 'Saved As' I was never given any reason not to believe that that newly named file did not exist _anywhere_ on my hard drive. No error message, no program crashing, ... nothing. That is the part that made me think, what's going on here?

 

Sorry if I appear to be dense here ... it's not the first time ... or the last.

 

 

 

[Sven Golly]

What I find interesting - when I 'Saved As' I was never given any reason not to believe that that newly named file did not exist _anywhere_ on my hard drive. No error message, no program crashing, ... nothing. That is the part that made me think, what's going on here?

 

The file does exist on your hard drive, Dave. Open WinZip, and find out what directory it's using as it's "temp" directory. Use Windows Explorer to view that directory, and you should see your file(s) there.

 

Alternately, with Word opened, you should see a list of the last 4 files you worked on (under the "File" menu, depending on which version of Word you're using). You can re-open the edited file from there, then use the "File" -> "Save As" option to specify a directory where you want the file to be saved; you can now place the file in a directory of your choosing, and from there can select it to add to a WinZip archive, etc.

 

 

[RABid]

Okay Dave. Try this.

 

Open one of those WinZip files or a file in a zipped folder with Word. Make a change and save as. Save it. Close it. Go to the File menu in Word and select file number 1 towards the bottom of the menu. This should be the file you just saved using Save As. It should open with your changes. Then do a Save As again. At this point dont hit save. Instead click on the drop down list at the top of the Save box where you get to choose the location for saving the files. That will show you where your files are being saved when coming out of a zipped folder. For me they are buried in a Temp directory within my user area.

 

Documents and Settings

MyAccountName

Local Settings

Temp

wze408

 

This should be where your missing files are going. When doing a save as you need to redirect the save location to where you want it, then you have to re-zip the file. The problem is the interaction between your word processor and WinZip. Double clicking on a zip file will trigger WinZip to unzip it and when WinZip is done it will trigger the word processor to open it. WinZip is unzipping it into a temp folder. When saving, the word processor has no way to know that you want it to zip the file and it wants to save to the same location that WinZip placed that file after unzipping.

 

Robert

[RABid]

Too many interruptions this morning. Sven beat me by 17 minutes on the reply.

 

Hi Sven. Long time no see. Have you been on the road?

[Dave Horne]

The Working Folder and Temp Folder for WinZip (version 11.1) had the attribute of Hidden. After changing Folder Options (Control Panel \ Folder Options) to view Hidden Folders the Saved As docs were still not there ... and were not listed under Documents (in Start \ Documents). (I have since changed the Working and Temp folders in WinZip to a more accessible location but Save As don't work.)

 

Furthermore doing a Search (after 'Saving As' and giving the doc a unique name) came up with nothing (even though I could view hidden files and folders).

 

There are also some Options in WinZip that I can not change _even_ though I am set up as the Administrator (in Windows Vista Home Premium). They are grayed out.

 

An altered document is Updated in WinZip. I also rec'd an e-mail from WinZip which in so many words told me it only Updates and does not Save As. So, according to WinZip the program is acting exactly as it should.

 

I'm not going to make this a mission in my life. I will simply work on documents outside of WinZip and then zip them.

[Sven Golly]

Hi Sven. Long time no see. Have you been on the road?

 

Hiya, Rabid... I've done some short touring jaunts, but mostly just been busy with various other things. As usual, I began suffering some KC withdrawal, and had to come back.

 

Well, that, and Eric came all the way up to Toronto from Virginia to lay on the guilt trip about my lack of participation in the forums... something about "they went to all the trouble to update the software, the least you could do is pop in and say hi... hey, can I sit in with the band? What's the best beer here? Who's that hot blonde you were talking to?"

 

Okay... maybe not that last bit..