Archives are collections of data selected for long term preservation. In computers, archives are simply collections of data gathered under one name, designed to provide more space on the computer. Computer archiving consists in shrinking the size of a file in order to make some room on the hard disk or to send it to someone over the Internet. Along the many compressing utilities, one in particular draw my attention and you’re about to see why. The name is ZipZag, an Xtreme Soft srl software designed to handle an impressive number of archives for Windows, Linux and Mac, priced at $19.95.

The interface does not pose the least of problems. Any user can handle it very easy. All the menus can be set exactly where the user desires. You can even take them out of the application window and position them on your desktop.

The application window is divided into three areas: the file tree in the right, the files of the folder in the left, and in the lower part of the application window there is the viewing area (you can view the files inside an archive).

Everything you need is displayed in the toolbars, in the upper part of the window. There are three of them: the Menu toolbar, the Explorer toolbar and the Archiver toolbar.

The Menu toolbar contains absolutely everything the software has to offer. I found a nice surprise in the View menu, under themes. If you want to change the look of the application, ZipZag provides 12 different themes to choose from.

The software supports over 155 archive extensions (Windows and DOS, Mac and Linux). It can also handle encoded files (.b64, .hqx, .bhx, .bnh, .boo, .tzb, .uu, .ntx, etc.), application related files (AutoCAD, DVDSubber Subtitles, DX Studio documents, Money Backup files, etc.), game levels and data files (over 9 file formats), Total Commander plugins (.img, .iso, .mpq, .scl, .dbx, .atr, etc.), more than 40 skins themes and collections.

The user can make conversions from one supported archive format to another in just a few clicks. There are eleven archive types you can convert to and from (7zip, Bza, Cabinet, Deep Freezer, Gza, Lharc, Squeeze, Tape, Tar.bz2, Tar.gz and Zip). The Sfx (Self Extract) option allows creating .exe files from .zip and .7zip archives.

With ZipZag, the user will save lots of time due to the explorer toolbar and its features. Here you can create new folders, go up one level, rename, cut, copy and paste the files, view inside an archive and delete it.

The Archive toolbar will facilitate the archiving process by quickly opening an archive, extracting it or adding a new element to it. The user can test the archive first to see if it is Ok, and scan it for all kinds of malicious files with the stand alone antivirus.

The Tools menu is the most important of all, as it contains options like batch extracting, convert archive, repairing archive, etc. Batch extracting has never been easier. Just go to the folder you have the archives in, select the desired files, make the output settings and click extract.
The Options button opens a dialog that allows the user to set the compression parameters for the target archive.
The "Merge Archives" option allows merging the archives in a folder into a single compressed file. If you have a bad archive on your computer, you can go ahead and try repairing it with ZipZag.

The Good

The software is so easy to use that even a monkey could handle it. The interface is just displaying everything. Using the software is just a matter of clicking.
The many archive formats it supports are a real asset to the software, as the user is no longer forced to buy different compression tools. You can use this software for all your extracting and compressing needs.
The scanning and mailing options are indeed very useful (these are just shortcuts to the stand alone applications on your computer)


The Bad

I had my share of problems with the software; that is I could not extract some archives at the beginning (I had multiple folders compressed in an .sqx archive and only one of them had a .tar archive), but I managed to solve all of them.


The Truth

The software is definitely worth trying and even buying ($19.95). The features it has will help you in solving lots of archiving problems. If you have multiple archives, you can merge them all into a single compressed file.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: