Introduction

Stuffit Lite 3.5 is a shareware program that allows you to compress files so that they take up less space on your disk. Stuffit also decompresses (extracts, restores) the files to their original size. Stuffit has to be installed on the computer that you are using in order to compress a file. All of the PowerMacs in the Poe lab have some version of Stuffit installed on their hard drives. Any other computer that you are using off-campus to stuff files also has to have Stuffit installed on it. A Stuffit Lite 3.5 folder is available in the ECI 715 folder for you to copy.

Stuffit (available on the HyperStudio 3.0 CD) allows you to create self-extracting archives (archive.sea). With this newer version you don't have to have Stuffit installed to decompress or extract the files. Stuffit version 1.5.1 does not allow you to do this.

When you save a HyperStudio stack to your disk, it is saved as one file. Any sounds, text objects, graphics, etc. become part of the stack. QuickTime movies are not saved in the stack, but a pointer to the movie's location is saved in your stack. When you copy your stack and move it to a new location, you need to also copy the QuickTime movies associated with the stack, if they will not be available in the new location. You should put the QuickTime movies in the same folder as the stack, so that HyperStudio can find the movie.

A 1.4MB high density 3.5" disk can hold approximately 28 cards at 256 colors (every card in a 256-color stack takes about 50K of disk space). For this reason, you do not want to create stacks that are greater than about 1.3MB. Multimedia projects usually require multiple stacks linked together via HyperStudio or some other multimedia software. In order to share stacks, or transport your stacks back-and-forth between the Poe lab and other computers that you are using for stack development, you may find it easier to compress the stacks so that they will use fewer disks. A HyperStudio stack that takes up 576K of disk space, will take up about 297K after it has been compressed by Stuffit 1.5.1. A 4.9MB folder after compression takes up less than 3MB of space.

Stuffing (Compressing) Files:

Suppose I wanted to compress the following files -

Demo 1: Layered Animation,
Demo 3.1: Asking Questions
Demo 5: More Ques/Time.

Assume that these files reside in the 7 day storage folder on the hard drive of a Mac in the PowerMac lab. Suppose I want to compress these files and put them into an archived file called EVstacks.sea in the 7 day storage folder. This is what I would do:

TO STUFF FILES:

1. Double click on the application Stuffit Lite icon to launch the program. You'll find the program on the hard drive of the computers in the PowerMac lab (Poe 420). Do a find file to locate it. You may get a Registration Window that opens up asking you if you want to register. If you do, you can choose Not Yet.

2. Under the File menu select New...A dialog box similar to the one below should open.

• in the dialog box navigate to the location where you want to put the compressed archive. (e.g. in 7 day storage).
• click in the box under "Create NEW archive..." and type in the name of the archive. In my example I called my archive EVstacks.sit It ends with "sit" to indicate it is a Stuffit archive.
• Click on New.

3. A screen similar to the following will appear with the archive's name a the top.

4. Click on the small box in the bottom left hand corner to make the file SELF EXTRACTIING!

When the archive is finally created and saved, it will have the extension ".sea" (e.g. EVstacks.sea) for self-extracting archive. Click on the Stuff button in the lower left to begin the stuffing (compression) process. [You may have to look around the screen for this "bar" containing Stuff and New that appears below the large window above.] Another dialog box will appear similar to the one below.

• Navigate to the file that you want to compress. If you remember, my three stacks were contained in the 7 day storage folder on the Lab Hard Drive. So in the dialog box you see the file names located in the 7 day storage folder on the Lab HD.
• Click on the file name once to select it, then click once on ADD. The name (Demo#1-Layered Animation) will be added to the list of files to be stuffed. (The list of files to be stuffed appears on the right.
• Click once to hightlight the next file you want to compress. Click once on Add. The name will be added to the list of files to be compressed.
• When you are finished adding files, click on Stuff. The window should change showing the stuffing process.
• When you are done compressing the files, select Save As and save the archive in the location where you want it to be saved (e.g. 7 day storage). Make sure that you navigate to the right location (e.g. 7 day storage) before you save!!!

4. When the program is finished saving the archive, select QUIT from the FILE menu.

TO UNSTUFF (extract) Files:

Unstuffing files restores them to their original size. Since my files were saved as a self extracting archive, I double click on Evstacks.sea to unstuff the files (stacks). You will be prompted for the location where you want the unstuffed files to be saved (e.g. 7 day storage). Navigate there and click on Save.

You may want to test a self-extracting archive to see if it self extracts.

REMEMBER TO TRASH ANY FILES ON 7 DAY STORAGE THAT YOU NO LONGER NEED!!