The file manager is the heart of Paquet Builder: it lets you specify the files that you want to be compressed and delivered by the package. The window is divided into two sections: on the left side you can see the component manager, and on the right side is the "true" file manager.

Components are special categories that you can define in order to group related files together.

Please first click here to learn more about components in Paquet Builder.

Working with the component manager

To add a new component to the component list, press the Add button and you will be prompted for a new component title.
To remove an existing component from the list, select it and press the Remove button .
Components have properties: use the Properties button to edit the properties of a selected component.

To let Paquet Builder create components automatically, click on the Auto-Create component button .

Finally if some components are source folder-linked, you can force them to be refreshed by clicking on the Live-Update button .

Tip: you can also use the mouse context menu (right click on a component) to access to options like renaming component in addition to the previous ones.

Working with the file manager

Select a component first; then you can manage the files that belong to the latter. When you select a component, Paquet Builder first loads the list of files that are already included into the component: each time a change is made (files added or removed for instance), the component's file list will be automatically saved.

Adding/removing files

The file manager works exactly like Windows Explorer: the list view displays the full paths to the files that are part of the selected component.

To add files to the list, press the Add button and select an option: you may add single or multiple files, entire folders and custom wild cards. Just select the appropriate action when you have just clicked the Add button:

For example, selecting "Add Wildcard" will open this window:

You can enter a path and specify which files should be added using a mask: in the situation shown on the screenshot only text files including ones from the sub-folders of C:\My Documents\Plus will be added.

Or you may rather add entire folders (including their sub-folders or not) using the "Add Folder" command.

To remove a file from the list, select it and press the Remove button .

Finally, to clear the entire file list, click on the Clear button. You can select multiple files by pressing Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click.

To open a file, just select it and click using the mouse's right button on its icon, select Open in the context menu and the associated program will be launched in order to open it.

Drag/drop operations

Paquet Builder supports drag/drop operations from Windows Explorer and other shell windows. Select all the files in the explorer, drag them onto the manager's file list and they are automatically added to the list. You can launch Windows Explorer by clicking on the Explorer button.

Setting file properties

Please see this topic for further description and demonstrations about working with file properties.

You can edit file properties by first selecting a single file or a group of files (like in Windows Explorer); then click the Properties button or use the context menu command "File Properties", or even double-click on files.

Sorting files

Paquet Builder displays information about each file: the full filename (path+name), file type, size... If you need to sort your files according to a specific data (for example, file types), just click on the associated column. You may also resize the different columns:

Using the context menu

All of the previous commands are also available from the context menu: click on the list with the mouse's right button to display it. It contains additional commands not directly available such as "Select All" or "File Information". The last command gives you global information about the package files (total size, number of files...). Finally the "File Properties" command will display the "Properties" dialog available in Windows Explorer (lets you access to the properties of the selected file).

A special command named "Create a shortcut to..." allows you to quickly create shortcuts to the selected file(s). These shortcuts can be edited later with the shortcut manager.

Including sub-folders

When you add a folder or a source wildcard, Paquet Builder has two choices: just add the files from the selected folder, or also include the files from the selected the sub-folders. This option is actually available in the Environment Options and it determines whether subdirectories are traversed to look for files when adding a wildcard mask or an entire folder.

Exception: with the "Add wildcard" command, you can immediately whether sub-folders should be recursed or not.

Using an existing archive

Paquet Builder allows you to use an existing archive (Cabinet, 7-Zip or Zip depending on the compression method you have selected when creating a project) instead of independent files as the main file source for your package. Just select the tab named "Existing Archive" and then specify your archive. You can also preview its contents.

Using external archives is not recommended especially if you work with components. This feature should be used in case of small projects or if you want to change an existing archive into a Self-Extracting archive for distributing it to someone who does not own the right decompression tool.

The existing archive feature is especially used by the Windows Explorer shell extension: if you have this add-on (use the Web Update tool), you can convert existing Zip, 7-Zip and Cab archives into Self-Extracting packages directly from Windows Explorer (and without the need of creating a project).

Be sure to select an archive according to the selected compression method. Do not try to use a Zip archive if the compression method is set to Cabinet.

An extra for Zip archives: if you have specified a Zip archive and added individual files in the file list, Paquet Builder will automatically merge your files within the Zip archive. This option is only available with Zip archives - since you cannot add files to an existing Cabinet or 7-Zip (solid mode) file.


Manage files to compress