Working with Stuffit Expander Preferences

You can change the behavior of StuffIt Expander using the StuffIt Expander preferences dialog. To open StuffIt Expander preferences, choose Preferences from the "StuffIt Expander" menu in Mac OS X, or Preferences from the "Edit" menu in Mac OS 8.6-9.x.

Expanding Preferences

The Expanding Preferences are used to determine how StuffIt Expander goes about the task of expanding an archive or encoded file.

Expand Archives and Compressed Files When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will expand archives and compressed files.
Delete [archives and compressed files] after expanding This preference is available only when "Expand archives and compressed files" is enabled. When it is enabled, the archives and compressed files you expand will be deleted once the files they contain are successfully extracted.Use this preference with great caution! If the archive or compressed file is damaged, or any error occurs during expansion, the file may still be deleted and would then have to be replaced before you can try expanding it agai
Expand Encoded Files Use this preference to determine whether or not StuffIt Expander should attempt to expand encoded files. Encoded files differ from compressed files as they are not smaller than the original. Encoding protects files from damage.
Delete [encoded file] after expanding This preference determines whether or not encoded files should be deleted after they have been expanded. Use this preferences with great caution! If the encoded file is damaged, or any error occurs during expansion, the file may still be deleted and would then have to be replaced before you can try expanding it again.
Continue to expand (if possible) This preference, when enabled, causes StuffIt Expander to scan the file that results from expanding an archive, compressed, or encoded file to see if it can be further expanded. For example, when this preference is enabled, and StuffIt Expander encounters a BinHex encoded StuffIt archive, it will start to expand the archive as soon as it has decoded the BinHex layer. Note: Archives, compressed, and encoded files contained within folders in the archive must be separately expanded.
Ignore Return Receipt messages Causes StuffIt Expander to ignore Return Receipt requests contained in StuffIt archives.
Scan for Viruses StuffIt Expander allows you to automatically scan files that are extracted from archives and encoded files for viruses with your virus protection software. StuffIt Expander supports Virex, Norton Anti-Virus, and Virus Barrier. If you would like to try using a different Virus program, choose "Other..." from the pop-up menu.
Open Palm .prc and .pdb files StuffIt Expander can automatically open Palm application programs in the Palm installation program. When this preference is enabled, any Palm application expanded from an archive will be set up for installation in the Palm installation program.
Show Drag window This preference determines whether or not StuffIt Expander's drag and drop window is displayed.

Joining Preferences

The joining preferences determine how StuffIt Expander will handle files that have been segmented.

Join Segmented Files : When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will attempt to join files that have been segmented (broken into smaller pieces) with StuffIt.
Delete Segments after joining: When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will delete the segments once the rejoined file has been saved. Use this preference with great caution! If the segments are damaged, or any error occurs during joining, the segments may still be deleted and would then have to be replaced before you can try joining them again.
Expand joined files (if possible): When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will attempt to expand the rejoined file if it is a archive, compressed, or encoded file.

Disk Image Preferences

Disk Image preferences determine how StuffIt Expander will handle disk image files.

Mount Disk Images: When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will attempt to mount disk image files (resulting in the appearance of a Òvirtual diskÓ) . StuffIt Expander is not able to mount .dmg disk image files created by Disk Copy under OS X. These disk images must be mounted with the Disk Copy application included in OS X .
Keep Mounted Images in RAM: When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will keep the mounted disk image in RAM if there is enough free memory available. A disk image mounted in RAM has the same properties as a RAM Disk created under classic versions of the Mac OS.
Mount images unlocked by default: When this preference is enabled, StuffIt Expander will attempt to mount disk images as unlocked (read/write) volumes. Images that include compression can only be mounted as locked volumes.

Destination Preferences

The Destination preferences determine where StuffIt Expander will save files that have been extracted from archives, compressed files, or encoded files. You can choose the location where files are extracted. The following options are available:

Same as Original: When this option is selected, files will be saved to the same location as the archive, compressed file, or encoded file from which they were expanded. This is the default setting.
Ask: When this option is selected, StuffIt Expander will prompt you to specify a location to which files should be expanded.
Use: Use this option to specify a location to be used every time StuffIt Expander saves a file.


Surrounding Folder

In this preference you can specify whether or not StuffIt Expander should place expanded files into a new folder.

When the archive contains multiple items:

This is the default option. When this option is selected, StuffIt Expander will create a surrounding folder whenever the archive contains multiple items at the root (first) level. The name of the archive will be used for the newly created folder.

Never: StuffIt Expander will never create a surrounding folder.
Always: StuffIt Expander will always create a surrounding folder.

Watch Folder Preferences

Check for Files to Expand in: This setting allows you to select a target folder for StuffIt Expander to Watch. If expandable files are placed or downloaded into this folder, StuffIt Expander will automatically expand them.


You can tell StuffIt Expander to monitor and expand files in a particular folder, called the "Watch" folder. You can use the Watch Folder feature to scan your Internet download folder so that files you download from the Internet, regardless of the web browser or utility used, are always expanded.

Once StuffIt Expander has scanned the target folder, you can specify what happens next:

Wait: You can tell StuffIt Expander to stay running and watch for new files to expand in a specified number of minutes. To Stop StuffIt Expander from expanding the same file over and over again, you can configure the application to automatically delete archives after they have been expanded. Be aware, however, that if the archive is damaged, or any errors occur during expansion, the archive will still be deleted and will have to be replaced before you can try expanding it again.
Quit: You can tell StuffIt Expander to Quit after files have been expanded. You will see a "Quit Pending" dialog displayed when StuffIt Expander is about to quit. You can use this time to open the preferences dialog and change the setting so that StuffIt Expander does not quit after expanding files.

Error Reporting Preferences

This preference determines how StuffIt Expander will handle errors that occur while files are being expanded.

Report Errors using alert window: Errors will be displayed in an alert window created by the application. Each error must be dismissed before the application can continue.
Ignore errors: Errors will not be reported at all. Expansion will continue where possible.
Log errors to: Errors be logged to a text file. Expansion will continue if possible.

Internet Preferences

The Internet Preferences page is used to determine which file types are automatically associated with StuffIt Expander by Internet applications such as web browsers.

Version Checking Updates

This preferences determines whether or not StuffIt Expander should check for updates and upgrades over the Internet when it is launched.

The Internet Preferences page is used to determine which file types are automatically associated with StuffIt Expander by Internet applications such as web browsers.

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