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Working with DropStuff® Profiles and Droplets

DropStuff is completely customizable!

When you launch DropStuff, its main window appears showing one large DropTarget and four smaller DropTargets. All but one of these DropTargets are preconfigured, but you can change the settings on any of them for your own needs. There are four groups of attributes you can control: Archive Settings, Destination Settings, Encoding Settings, and Other Settings. Together these make up a "Profile". You can create as many unique Profiles as you like and assign them to the different DropTargets in DropStuff's DragWindow. Dragging files and folders to that DropTarget will create an archive using the settings from the Profile you specified. You can also save a Profile as a Desktop Droplet in the Finder.

  • Archive Settings: Choose between StuffIt X, Zip or Tar formats. Then choose options for the particular format like encryption.
  • Destination Settings: Choose between local directories, burning to CD/DVD, FTP servers, or MobileMe iDisk
  • Encoding Settings: Optionally post-encode your archive into BinHex or UUencode.
  • Other Options: General settings like "Delete Originals".

To access the Profiles Setup window, double-click on one of the DropTargets on DropStuff's DragWindow, or select "Profiles" from the Windows menu

Example 1: Create Encrypted StuffIt X archives and burn to CD/DVD

  1. Select “Profiles” from DropStuff’s Window menu to open the Profiles Setup window
  2. Click the “+” to create a new Profile
  3. It should appear at the top of the Profiles list
  4. Double-click the name and change it to something more informative like “Encrypt and Burn”
  5. Select “StuffIt” from the Archive Type pop-up menu (Note that the icon changes when you change archive format)
  6. Enable the “Encrypt archives with passphrase” option
  7. Leave “Create searchable index archive” enabled (this feature allows StuffIt Deluxe users to locate files in archives stored offline)
  8. Scroll down the options list to “Destination” and choose CD/DVD from the pop-up menu.
  9. Optionally specify a directory to temporarily store the compressed files before it is burned to disk

There are two options for using this Profile:

  • Save it to the Desktop (or anywhere on your disk) as a Desktop Droplet (see below) by clicking the “Create Droplet” button.

    To use it, just drag files and/or folders to the Droplet in the Finder.

    Tip: Drag your Droplets to your Dock for convenient access.

  • Assign the Profile to one of the five DropTarget areas in DropStuff’s Drag Window by dragging the Profile name to the DropTarget.

To use it, drag files and/or folders to the DropTarget on DropStuff’s DragWindow.

Tip: The larger DropTarget is DropStuff’s default and determines how the program will function when you drag files to its Dock or Application icon.

Example 2: Create Zip archives intended for Windows users and upload to FTP site.

  1. Select “Profiles” from DropStuff’s Window menu to open the Profiles Setup window
  2. Click the “+” to create a new Profile
  3. It will appear alphabetized in the profiles list. The default English title is "New Profile."
  4. Double-click the name and change it to something more informative like “Zip and FTP”
  5. Select “Zip” from the Archive Type pop-up menu
  6. Disable the “Preserve Macintosh Content” option (disabling this feature prevents Windows users from receiving unneeded Mac-specific content.)
  7. Scroll down the options list to “Destination” and choose FTP from the pop-up menu.
  8. Enter the FTP server information.
  9. Optionally specify a directory to temporarily store the compressed files before it is uploaded to the FTP server.
  10. As in Example 1 above, create a Droplet, and/or assign the Profile to a target on DropStuff’s main window.

Desktop Droplets

DropStuff's main window is limited to five DropTargets, but you can alternatively save each Profile as a Droplet to your Desktop. Each Droplet works like a customized DropStuff: drag files to a Droplet and it will launch, and based on its Profile, create an archive with your specified compression settings, encryption settings, destination settings, encoding settings, etc. You will only see DropStuff's progress bar while the operation occurs. When the operation is complete, DropStuff and the Droplet will quit. Droplets have two advantages:

  • You can make as many unique Droplets as you wish.
  • You can use Droplets even if DropStuff is not already running.

Note: Droplets are not continuously connected to the Profile that created them. If you change the Profile settings and want those settings applied to a Droplet you will need to save a new Droplet from that Profile.

Because Droplets are independent, they are unaffected by changes or deletion of the Profiles from whence they came.

Tip: Drag your Droplets to your Dock or Desktop for convenient access. If you have StuffIt Deluxe, you can also access your Droplets from the MagicMenu, or the StuffIt Contextual Menu. To send files to the Droplet, just select them in the Finder and then select your Droplet from MagicMenu's Droplets submenu.