Opening Archive Files
You can simply open and browse archive files in panels as if they were normal directories. Just focus archive file and press the Enter key or double-click mouse on archive file. Also see Changing Directory for other ways of opening (changing directory to) archive file, mainly: Commands/Change Directory (Shift+F7) and Edit/Paste (Ctrl+V).
Once you have opened archive file you can work with files and directories in it. Just focus or select them and use Open, View, Edit, Copy (both directions - pack and unpack), Move (it works like pack and delete), Delete, Copy to and Paste from clipboard (both directions - pack and unpack), Compare Directories, Calculate Directory Sizes, and other commands (search menu for enabled commands). You can also use commands from context menu (use right mouse click or Shift+F10).
The View, Edit, and Open commands unpack focused file from archive to temporary directory. This unpacked file is opened in Viewer, Editor, or using system associations (note: if you want to start application from archive file, you need to unpack whole archive to prevent problems with missing DLL libraries and other application files). When you change path out of archive file in panel, Salamander detects if unpacked files in temporary directory has been changed (this applies only to Edit and Open commands) and if yes, it offers you archive update (to pack changed files back to archive file).