Can you open Zipped files?

ukeofcarl · Oct 30, 2012

Hi,

I've been selling a few ebooks on my website and as they are a mix of mp3 and PDF, I deliver them in a zipped format. RAR to be precise.

Now recently, I've had more than a few customers who have been totally unable to unzip these files. To me, it has always been second nature to right click and extract all. But now I'm wondering if this is something others are unaware of or even if zipped files just don't work on certain people's computers? Is there a better option available?

So, can you open zipped files?

ukemunga · Oct 30, 2012

Anyone with a Mac can, but the extension always shows up as zip. PCs in general, I don't know.

Are your files actually ending in .rar? If so, that is probably your problem. If the user is clueless, as many computer users are, they would not know how to assign a program to open those files.

v30 · Oct 30, 2012

Use .zip rather than .rar.
.zip works basically on all computers i think....rar may need certain software to uncompress it

The Big Kahuna · Oct 30, 2012

RAR is a semi-proprietary format. You'll need either Winrar itself or 7-Zip to extract it. If you are using Winrar, you need to select the "add to archive" option, and select zip format, rather than the "add to xxx.rar" option. WinACE will also handle rar files.

OldePhart · Oct 30, 2012

In the US and on Windows, at least, .zip is better than .rar ("better" being "more readily accessible to people with shakey comptuer skills").

John

chrimess · Oct 30, 2012

Definitely ZIP-it since some popular freeware will not do RAR out of the box.

OldePhart said:
In the US and on Windows, at least, .zip is better than .rar ("better" being "more readily accessible to people with shakey comptuer skills").

John

ukeofcarl · Oct 31, 2012

Thanks for this. I just didn't occur to me that rar doesn't equal zip. Looks like I'm going have to reupload all my books now. Thanks again.

JamieFromOntario · Oct 31, 2012

I agree. zip files are typically more accessible.

For those of you who know and love/hate WinZip, I saw this comic yesterday and feel it's poignant:

http://thedoghousediaries.com/4685

OldePhart · Oct 31, 2012

JamieFromOntario said:
I agree. zip files are typically more accessible.

For those of you who know and love/hate WinZip, I was this comic yesterday and feel it's poignant:

http://thedoghousediaries.com/4685

Heh, heh. Pretty funny.

Manalishi · Oct 31, 2012

Never understood the folks who don't use RAR as the
main choice.The program is free, it states that it is
a 'time limited' demo but I have had mine for a few
years now and it has never 'expired'! It works with ZIP
files too,and a few others that ZIP alone will NOT open.

ukulelepuapua · Oct 31, 2012

ukeofcarl said:
Hi,

I've been selling a few ebooks on my website and as they are a mix of mp3 and PDF, I deliver them in a zipped format. RAR to be precise.

Now recently, I've had more than a few customers who have been totally unable to unzip these files. To me, it has always been second nature to right click and extract all. But now I'm wondering if this is something others are unaware of or even if zipped files just don't work on certain people's computers? Is there a better option available?

So, can you open zipped files?

Actually,

Zip and Rar archives are basically the same format, programs such as winrar(free, windows) and ZiPeg(free, mac) will unarchive these formats as well as 7zip, Iso, and many other compression formats.

Hope this clears up some of your guys' confusion

The Big Kahuna · Oct 31, 2012

ukulelepuapua said:
Actually,

Zip and Rar archives are basically the same format, programs such as winrar(free, windows) and ZiPeg(free, mac) will unarchive these formats as well as 7zip, Iso, and many other compression formats.

Hope this clears up some of your guys' confusion

They are only the same format insofar as they are lossless compression algorithms, the same as outdated methods such as LZW. The fact that Winrar will open a ZIP archive doesn't mean that they are the same, only that Winrar offers support for the ZIP format.

ukulelepuapua · Oct 31, 2012

The Big Kahuna said:
They are only the same format insofar as they are lossless compression algorithms, the same as outdated methods such as LZW. The fact that Winrar will open a ZIP archive doesn't mean that they are the same, only that Winrar offers support for the ZIP format.

I understand that, thankfully though, the argument answers the basic question that was posed in the topic, not the compression methods or algorithms used by each format, (though I wouldnt go as far as to say that rar archives are nearly as outdated as lzw), in fact unless your going to use some type of custom compression, the best compression method to date would be 7z, then rar. So I wouldnt say they are that outdated. Thanks for your further clarification though Kahuna.

Edit*

I didnt realize you (kahuna) had answered the question already on page 1, otherwise I wouldnt have responded at all! +1 to you Kahuna

SailingUke · Oct 31, 2012

Every time I see this thread title I read "flies" not "files".
Makes me look twice.

ukeofcarl · Oct 31, 2012

I've reuploaded them as .zip files anyhow, as I figure it must be more universal. I've not yet had any complaints, so I'm guessing it works! Thanks gents.

Can you open Zipped files?

ukeofcarl

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ukemunga

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v30

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The Big Kahuna

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OldePhart

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chrimess

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ukeofcarl

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