There are times when things don’t “just work.” At least, not like we always want them to. This is even true if you use a Mac in a PC world. I had uploaded a bunch of digital scrapbooking kits to 3 Scrapateers some time ago and while I had uploaded the same kits and even the same ZIP files that I had uploaded to NDISB (Natural Designs in Scrapbooking), there have been problems with 2 of the uploads I sent to them. Sad, but true. The truly sad part is that this is not entirely a Mac thing. It isn’t. The PC doesn’t get that luxurious call this time. Uploading via FTP can sometimes corrupt files if there are any glitches. I am assuming that this is all that happened, but I reuploaded and it still did not change the fact that there were difficulties extracting the files from the ZIP file.
They suggested I get rid of the Mac files in the zip files. This is typically not a root of the problem simply because the files are pointless on the PC. Just like the stupid thumbs.db files are that come through in some PC zipped files. These files are simply Mac fork files and they keep info that is important only to a Mac. Everyone just assumes that these are a problem because they don’t know that they are useless to the PC and that they could even set their computer to ignore these files (not show them). I am not adding these files to the ZIP files. I promise. The Mac does it automatically. I am not sure how to change that with the native archiving applications available.
Anyway, I went looking for another archiving/compression application that would allow me to get rid of those files in the end file. The search wasn’t too hard actually. Finding one that was free was more of a challenge. I don’t want to invest a tone of money on this little project. I would consider it if I were doing way more than just this, but use is hit or miss. Sometimes I’ll do a lot, sometimes hardly any.
I stumbled upon Yemu Zip. The reviews were good. It met my specifications: (1) easy to use, (2) archived without the Mac specific files, and (3) was cheap. I was happy to download the file and open it up to give it a try.
Yemu Zip is free for personal use and trial. Regular price is only $20 or something like that. I can afford that if it becomes a necessity. Sure beats the $50-100 I was finding on some of the programs.
Yemu Zip is easy to use. Once it is installed, you simply drag your files and drop them onto the application window. The window isn’t big. If you aren’t running your Finder window at full size, there is plenty of screen real estate to accommodate its small size. I simply had to select if I wanted the archive it creates to be PC friendly (leave off the Mac files) or not. I then simply did the whole drag and drop routine with the folder I wanted zipped up. Done!
We’ll see if I still feel the same about it in a few more uses, but as for right now it gets a 2 thumbs up.
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