Ark

Ark is an application to manage archives of files

Ark allows you to

It can handle many formats, including tar, gzip, bzip2, zip, rar and lha.

Creating an Archive

Files can be added to form the archive using the Action menu
Alternatively files can be dragged from a Konqueror or Dolphin window into the main Ark window
Also on the Action menu is "Add Folder" which can pull a whole directory into the archive
Files can be added to a saved archive at any time.

This is the use that most people will meet first.

With a single file highlighted you will be asked whether you want to extract that one file or all files.
The archive remains complete and the file you selected is placed in the directory of your choice.

Very often an archive will contain a README or some other instruction file. It is often useful to be able to preview that file before starting work with the archive. An option to preview any file in the archive is present in both the KDE3 and KDE4 versions of Ark.
It may be that one file in an archive becomes irrelevant. The file can be deleted within the archive.
In the KDE3 version it is possible to 'Open with' any suitable application
It is also possible, in the KDE3 version, to 'Edit with' an application.

(These two features are not available in KDE 4.1 - they will be added later)