Digital files and ZIP folders

Happy weekend!
I've recently had several customers have trouble with ZIP folders and getting the images out of them.  Since Doodle Pantry provides all digital images this way, as well as so many other digital shops, I decided this was a good subject to have a full post on.

First some basic information on ZIP folders.

• They are a universal format that just cannot be "opened".
• They are used for easier online transport and download of multiple files.
• You can only "save" the ZIP file to your computer from an online download, you will not be able to "open" the ZIP folder from the download location. 
• You can "view" the file names of all items within them when you double click, but you won't be able to open or access those files directly from the ZIP folder because they are compressed in there.
• Once the ZIP file is on your computer, you must perform an "extract" procedure on the ZIP folder to get all the contents out of it and uncompressed.  
• Once you get all the contents out of it and into a new accessible (NON ZIPPED) folder, you can delete the ZIP folder.

I will explain step by step with pictures showing how to save, extract, and access your digital products that you purchase from Doodle Pantry.

After a completed purchase, you are sent an email with download links.
When you click the download link from the email, you are sent directly to a page on the shop where it automatically puts the download token id in the field for you and all you have to do is click START DOWNLOAD.  Once you click START DOWNLOAD, your computer pops up a little message that has two options: Open with "BROWSE" and "Save file". You must make sure that "Save file" is checked, then click OK. See the picture below:

You must now select a location on your computer to save the ZIP folder, and then click SAVE.  NOTE: LEAVE THE FILE TYPE FIELD as ZIP folder, do not change this or you may corrupt your downloaded ZIP folder.  See picture below. 

Please NOTE: Some computers are set up to automatically save to a folder called "downloads" under your personal folders, and don't give you the option to select a place.  If this is the case, you need to know where that folder is located before you complete your download so that you know how to get to it later.

I saved my ZIP to my Doodle Pantry folder, you can see below my highlighted ZIP file and when I right click on it, a mini menu appears (not shown). Select "Extract All".

Your computer now starts a file extraction wizard, click NEXT.

Then you are asked you to browse a folder location to put the extracted files.  See below.  Navigate by browsing and pick the area you want the new folder to be located.  Once that is done, click NEXT.

If you want to go directly to the new folder after extraction, you can check the box that says "show extracted files".  Click FINISH.  Your computer will show progress as it extracts.

Below I show you the zip folder and the extracted folder next to each other... you can see one has an icon with a zipper on it, and the other does not.

Click to open the folder without a zipper, and you can see all your images in there when you change the viewer mode to "thumbnails".  See below

You can no longer do anything with the zip folder, it's function is completed, so just delete it AFTER you verify all the images uncompressed successfully into the non-zipped folder.

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Now you can use your images as you would for printing.  I have a digi image "how-to" using Word located at the Doodle Pantry shop page HERE.   There are many ways to printing and using digital images, some people use Photoshop, and I am sure if you do a google search, you will come up with a lot of information that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thank you for visiting, I hope this information was useful!