How to open genealogy PDFs from a .zip archive

When you order EasyGenie PDFs, you may be sent a .zip archive file. Don't worry, the PDFs are "inside" the archive, but you may need to perform an additional step to access them. Here's how:

How to open a .zip archive in Windows:

For Windows, follow the instructions on this Microsoft page to use File Explorer on Windows to open the .zip archive and extract the EasyGenie PDFs. You do not need to purchase additional software to extract a zip file on Windows - just follow the instructions below:

• Open File Explorer and find the zipped folder.
• To unzip the entire folder, right-click to select Extract All, and then follow the instructions.
• To unzip a single file or folder, double-click the zipped folder to open it. Then, drag or copy the item from the zipped folder to a new location.

If you can't find the .zip or PDF files in your downloads folder, search your hard drive for EASYGENIE to reveal its location.

How to open a .zip archive in macOS:

Macs have support to open .zip files from Finder - just find the file in Finder (usually in the Downloads folder) and double-click it to extract the archive, which will appear in a new subfolder in the same directory that contains the .zip file. 

How to open a .zip archive on mobile devices

We strongly recommend using a standard desktop PC or laptop (Windows or Mac) to open the PDFs, as it is very difficult to work with PDFs on an iPad or mobile phone. 

Why use .zip archives instead of sending the PDFs as attachments? EasyGenie's online store can only send one digital file per order, and because several of our PDF sets include more than one PDF file (such as instructions or different form types), we have to use the .zip format to send them all at once in a single attachment.