I made a Mac app for searching inside nested ZIP, 7z and RAR files

Hi r/macapps, I’m the developer of ZipSeek.

Problem

I made ZipSeek after running into the same problem too many times: I could remember a sentence from an old document, but not its file name or where I had put it.

It was especially annoying with old archives. Sometimes the document was inside a ZIP, which contained a 7z, which contained another ZIP. Finding a few words meant unpacking everything and opening files one by one.

ZipSeek lets you choose a file or folder and search it directly. It supports text files, PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and images using OCR. It can also follow nested ZIP, 7z and RAR layers while keeping the full path back to each result.

Where possible, it shows the PDF page, Word paragraph, PowerPoint slide, Excel cell, or OCR area where the text appeared.

Comparison

HoudahSpot is better if you want powerful Spotlight searches, metadata filters and reusable search setups. When Spotlight has already indexed everything, it will usually be faster than ZipSeek.

FoxTrot Professional Search is aimed at people with large document libraries that they search regularly. It builds its own indexes and has much deeper tools for proximity search, categorization, multiple collections, NAS storage and teams. It is a more complete system for researchers and organizations.

ZipSeek is for a different situation. You have a folder, external drive, mounted network folder or messy archive in front of you, and you want to search it without setting up a library first.

It has fewer advanced query and filtering tools than HoudahSpot or FoxTrot, but it can search through mixed ZIP, 7z and RAR layers without maintaining a background full-disk index.

Everything is processed on the Mac. There is no ZipSeek account and no cloud upload.

Pricing

ZipSeek costs $4.99 USD as a one-time purchase, with regional pricing.

It includes a 3-day free trial. There is no subscription, and the trial does not turn into an automatic charge.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/zipseek-search-inside-files/id6799636795

Website: https://www.goodapphq.com/zipseek/

I’d be interested to hear how other people deal with old document folders and archives, and which file types or workflows I should test next.

Nested Archives

Pdf page location



https://redd.it/1vwt1ot
@macappsbackup

Antinote 2.0 - iCloud, JS Extensions, Slotted Notes, Vim, and an iOS Beta

https://redd.it/1vx486e
@macappsbackup

Synapse 2.3.3 - Now with a Lightweight Screen Recorder for Smaller File Sizes

https://redd.it/1vx3p8e
@macappsbackup

Lathe: browse, edit and batch photos, video, audio and PDFs straight from your folders. No library, no import, no subscription.

https://redd.it/1vxannm
@macappsbackup

[Update] BetterStage v1.3.13 - This is how I actually use it

https://redd.it/1vxj4am
@macappsbackup

Found this little Mac app while scrolling Instagram

Random find from Instagram that I thought was pretty cool, especially if you're into little Mac utilities.

https://preview.redd.it/9lb4bbwxgglh1.png?width=764&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a9ee0f48cd29d1db79d5ff82341ab500566d3b9

It's called Lucky dangle. Basically you get a little charm hanging from the top of your screen, and it reacts when your cursor gets close to it. The physics make it feel surprisingly natural, while still staying out of the way when you're actually working.

Saw it in this instagram reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db8M3GVM3gJ/

Its under $2/€2 luckydangle.app/

Not the developer or anything, just came across it and thought it was a neat little app worth sharing.

https://redd.it/1vxqn8e
@macappsbackup

I made ActivityLine: CPU, GPU, RAM and Network activity in one menu bar line

https://redd.it/1vxtj9y
@macappsbackup

Pinland 1.3: a temporary shelf for text, images and files in the MacBook notch

All your useful stuff, tucked into the MacBook notch.

https://reddit.com/link/1vxtyqu/video/d00amlk5thlh1/player



Hi, I'm the developer of Pinland.



Pinland is for the things you know you'll need again in ten minutes: a screenshot, a paragraph, a link, a PDF, or another file. Copy or drag it into the MacBook notch. It stays hidden until you click the notch again.



Problem:



Pinned screenshots are useful until they start covering windows. Closing them means hunting for them again. Clipboard history has the opposite problem: it saves everything. Pinland only keeps what you deliberately put there, and keeps it out of sight between uses.



What Pinland does:



Hover a card to preview images, text, web links, Markdown, PDFs, and other files. Text can be edited in place. Labels become tabs automatically, and the shelf is searchable.



Comparison:



Snipaste is better when you want an image to remain visible on the desktop. Pinland is for temporary references you want nearby but hidden.



Clipboard managers are better for automatic history. Pinland is manual and intentionally smaller in scope.



Pricing:



$5.99 once in the US App Store, with local pricing elsewhere. No subscription:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pinland/id6793889737?mt=12



Pins are stored locally on your Mac. Hovering a saved web link contacts that website to fetch its public title and preview image.



Would per-item auto-expiry be useful, or would it make the shelf less predictable?

https://redd.it/1vxtyqu
@macappsbackup

Dock Float – A launcher utility that overcomes the physical limits of the macOS Dock to create a seamless workflow

https://redd.it/1vxyao5
@macappsbackup