Mac application install question when there is no dmg file

A disk image file is just another kind of archive. Don't open the archives on your PC. Transfer them to the Mac and open them there.

OS X knows how to handle those kind of files.

The one you mentioned, in its unzipped form is an OS X application (program).

Programs for Mac could come in different form.

The author can just compress the application into a ZIP file, before distribution.

He can place the application into a DMG file that is only a container.

He can build a package which is basically e self-extracting program. Usually a package comes inside a DMG.

On Windows the Default setting for showing file names is to NOT show the file extension for Known File Types. So if you have not changed that setting Windows more then likely knows what a DMG file is and is not showing that extension.

Also the Contents folder is visible in Windows but won't be, or may not be, visible in OS X until you right click on it and select Show Package Contents (or something like that).

If a Program that you downloaded has a .app extension then more then likely all you have to is drag that to the Applications folder for the App to work, no real install is needed, it is a self contained program or will install other needed file in other folders when first started.

I would STOP UnZipping them on a Windows PC. Wait until you get your Mac and copy over those Zip files and Unzip on the Mac.

All you need to do on the Mac to unzip is double click on the Zip file.

Would this then detect that it was on a Mac when I was unzipping it and from there produce a dmg file, which I would then drag and drop in the Applications folder on my Mac?

No. That's not how you install an application. First, the zip file doesn't necessarily contain a disk image; it may expand to the application itself, or to a folder containing the application, or to something else. The next step depends on what it is. If you get a disk image file, double-click to mount it, then do whatever is indicated by the contents. If it contains an application, move that -- not the disk image file -- to the Applications folder. Then umnount the disk image and discard the disk image file.

Why on earth do Mac people always suggest to Discard the DMG file after installing the App from it.

Those files will be needed again WHEN, NOT IF, you have to reinstall the OS and your programs. And yes that does happen.

This was just brought up in another thread. Somone is getting a new Mac and wants to start fresh. Only copying over their data files and reinstalling all the progrmas they now use clean and fresh. They asked if there was a way to tell if the program was installed from a DVD or from a downloaded file. I suggested to look through both the CD/DVD he had and the downloaded DMD/Zip/Whatever files and cross reference. He doesn't have the downloads because as a Good Mac User after installing the program he trashed the download.

What an Inane thing to do.

Not only save them but Make Backup copies of them.