For many digi scrappers, one of the dreaded parts of downloading new goodies is unzipping them. How many times have you downloaded some new supplies, but not unzipped them right away, only to come back later and find out the file was corrupt? One of my (Steph’s) favorite discoveries after I started digi scrapping was ‘Unzip Them All’. I didn’t find it on purpose, because I didn’t know there was a tool like this out there to even know to look for it. I was in a forum and saw someone mention that they could unzip multiple files at one time with this utility. I thought, “WHAT!? A way to unzip a lot of zips at one time? I must try this!” I quickly downloaded and installed ‘Unzip Them All’ and have loved having it especially when I have a lot of zips (those $1 sales hee hee).
I have been using ‘Unzip Them All’ for three or four years now, but have since found out that there are many depcompression utilities out there, that have a lot of really great features. After reading Heidi’s very thorough review of ‘Extract Now‘, I have thought about trying it out, but I still stay with ‘Unzip Them All’, not because I think it is the best out there, but because it’s already on my machine and it works for me. The interface on ‘Unzip Them All’ is pretty basic, but it does everything I want. I like that I can tell it to keep the zips or delete them after they have been unzipped (I usually keep them until I make sure there were no corrupt files). It also can handle A LOT of zips at one time without slowing down my system or crashing it. If you currently are not using a decompression tool, you might want to take the time to read Heidi’s review or these great reveiws I found here on several different free tools or these reveiws on both free and pay utilities.
Now, I have a system in place after I download, I unzip the files and then delete the zips (once I am sure that everything uzipped okay). It makes it easier to know if a file is corrupt right then while I am still downloading. It is also really nice to be able to use my goodies right when I want to and not have to wait for them to unzip first. The very best part of using a decompression utility though is only waiting a few seconds for ALL of my zips to unzip!!
P.S. There was a problem with yesterday’s post and the winners for the Clickinmoms memberships were not posted. The post was modified so please scroll down to the bottom of yesterdays post to see the winners. Congrats!
I’ve been digi scrapping a while now and had no idea this was out there! I was getting pretty frustrated unzipping/renaming/organizing all my new purchases…and as much as I love the digifiles they were the worst culprit since there are so many individual files. This will be a lifesaver! Thank you so much for the heads up !
Well, cool, your link has the zip file for UnzipThemAll! I’ll definitely be reinstalling…this will make scrapping on my desktop SO much more pleasant! Thanks again!
I’m so glad you posted this. After my HD crashed in December, and I basically had to start from scratch again, I went looking for UnzipThemAll…I had used it for at least a year and loved it. But sadly it’s not up on the web anymore (or it wasn’t as of last month anyway), so I’ll be checking into the other utility. Thanks for sharing!
thanks for the tip…could you post how you unzip everything? have a great weekend
I’m like Melinda in that I haven’t gotten daily feeds this week either–maybe last week, too.
This is awesome… thanks so much for sharing! I’ve downloaded Extract now and I’m unzipping as I type this… WooHoo
Thanks for this! I just unzipped a gazillion files!
I love Unzip-them-all! It makes things soooo much easier for me!
Is there a Mac program that does this?
basically, I do the same you do Steph, with the difference that I do not delete the zip files. I backup them in a folder calles “already unziped” and them transfer them all to my EHD once a week. If I have a HD crash I’ll find all of my zips waving from the EHD
I haven’t been getting updates in my bloglines all week
Any idea what’s going on? I miss getting my Daily update!
Thank you so much for this valuable information!!!
Thanks for the info. Installed Extract Now and it works great. What a time saver for me.
OMG it was wonderful I am going back to see what esle is there. 5 zips open at a time..wow…
Thank you!
I have been using UnZipThemAll for a year now and LOVE it. Great article to let others know.
I NEVER knew this!!! I am SO gonna be putting one of these utilities on my computer TODAY!!! Oh I’m so excited!!!!
I recently discovered another good reason to unzip your files right away. Sometimes the kits don’t have all the advertised items. This error is something the online store is usually able to fix quite easily if you notify them in a timely manner. It’s a lot more difficult to even remember what you may have purchased if you wait a long time to unzip.
I personally use Extract Now and love that I can quickly modify where the unzipped files go… how about a review on donwload managers, because i cannot find one that works for me, DH uses DAP but on scrap sites, it does not work for me or maybe i am doing it wrong,. but i would love a tutorial on that….