This used to be very simple before the advent of the newer operating
systems. There are different issues depending upon whether documents
are being moved between different OS's, different OS versions
or across a network.
In general it is usually best to put all of the documents into
a Zip type archive. This has several key advantages.
- The archive will protect the contents from alteration when
sent over the WEB or local internet network. The archive will
not unzip correctly if it is altered or damaged.
- When the archive is unzipped on the recipient machine the
unzipping tool will usually handle(specifically on a Macintosh
System) file attributing assignment or preservation should that
be an issue.
However there are some other things that you need to check or
do before you place documents into an archive.
Whether Macintosh or MS Windows there
is an increasing reliance on file name extensions in the newer
operating systems. Therefore always make sure that ALL
of your documents have the appropriate extensions before moving/sending
the documents to another machine. Also if you have to add an
extension be aware that adding this extension may break existing
data links (primarily in hierarchical schematics) and that you
should go through such projects and carefully check and correct
any broken links after the addition of extensions to existing
design documents.
The above is especially true of Macintosh documents created in
older software versions on older OS's
