HOW TO DECOMPRESS FILES YOU DOWNLOAD:

Many of the files in the Geoworks library are not compressed but in GeoWrite or GeoDraw format. However, some files in the Geoworks area and most in the main software libraries are compressed for faster download. 

Compressed files will be in one of three formats; zip, arc, or self-extracting.

ZIPed files end with the extension .zip. To decompress these files, you will need a program called PKUNZIP. If you don't have this, you can download it from the main library online. To find it do a keyword: Quickfind, then type PKZ110.EXE. Do a "Get Description" then select "Download file". To unzip a zipfile, just type:
PKUNZIP filename
where "filename" is the name of the zipfile exactly as it appears. So to decompress a file called Cookbook.zip, you'd type PKUNZIP Cookbook.zip <enter>.

Another type of compressed file you may find online, though it's less common, is an ARC (or archived) file. To decompress these files, you can either use a program called Qextract (available in the software libraries) or PKXARC.
Using Qextract, just highlight the file you want to have decompressed and then mouse click on "extract". Qextract will create a subdirectory on your hard drive with the same name as the file you are extracting, then extract all of the files to that directory. Qextract will also decompress zipfiles.
If you are using PKXARC, the syntax is similar to pkunzip:
PKXARC filename.arc <enter>.

The third kind of compressed file you may encounter online is a self-extracting file. These end in the extension .EXE and don't need any special software. Just type the name of the file, and it will decompress itself. When extracting such a file, copy it to the directory or disk where you plan to use the files.

Note: There is another fairly popular compression technique called LHARC. Files compressed in this way will have the extension .LZH. You won't find these files online but may run into them on a local bbs. A program to decompress these fiels is availably in the GeoWorks library called LHA.

Enjoy. And happy unziping, unarcing, unsquishing, and uncrunching!