Mac: The BetterZip Quick Look Generator

Mac: The BetterZip Quick Look Generator

Don't you wish Leopard's Quick Look would let you inspect the contents of compressed archives? Well, I do, so I took a little code from BetterZip, a template from Apple's Xcode, added a little code here and there, and after simmering this soup for three days the BetterZip Quick Look Generator is ready for a public tasting. Hot!

Download Now Current Version: 1.1

The currently supported archive formats are: ZIP, TAR, GZip, BZip2, ARJ, LZH, ISO, CHM, CAB, CPIO, RAR, 7-Zip, DEB, RPM, StuffIt's SIT, DiskDoubler, BinHex, and MacBinary.

Installation

Download it here, unpack, and copy the BetterZipQL.qlgenerator bundle to your /Library/QuickLook folder (if you want to install it for all users on your Mac) or to the ~/Library/QuickLook folder, this is the Library/QuickLook folder inside your user folder. You may need to create the QuickLook folder inside ~/Library first.

The Quick Look framework will need a little time before it realizes that a new generator has been added. If you are impatient and not afraid of using the terminal, you can execute this command to make the Quick Look framework reset immediately: 
qlmanage -r
or you could restart the Finder. Or logout and -in again. Or restart your Mac. Or take a nap. You choose.

Customization

In version 1.1 I have added a few preferences:

• Toggle whether you like to see hidden files and package contents.
• Choose which columns to display.
• Toggle whether the header section should scroll out of the window or be kept in place.

You can set the various options directly in the Quick Look pop-up. Just click the Preferences button in the upper right area. Set your options and click the button again to hide it. Unfortunately the settings will not stick between sessions. So I created a way to let you set your default settings.

Right- or control-click the bundle BetterZipQL.qlgenerator and select Show Package Contents. Then navigate to the subfolder Contents/Resources. Here you will find a file config.js. Open it with a text editor and set your default preferences. Each line represents a checkbox in the BetterZip Quick Look Generator's config box. 0 means box is not checked, 1 means box is checked. There are no other possible values. Save the file.

Translation to other languages

If you would like to add your language to the generator, look inside the bundle's folder Contents/Resources and copy the subfolder English.lproj. Rename it using your language identifier. Now you can edit the file Localizable.strings. You need to translate the right side of each line, so that it reads 
"Original text" = "Your translation"; 
Don't forget to zip the file and send it my way, so I can include it in a future version.

A quick update: I have received a number of localizations now: Chinese (trad.), Dutch, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish. I will include these with the next update. Please submit translations only for other languages. Thanks!