To open an archive in Ark, choose Open... (Ctrl+O) from the File menu. You can also open archive files by dragging and dropping from Konqueror or Dolphin. Archive files should be associated with Ark, so you can also right click a file in Konqueror or Dolphin and select Open with Ark to open it or select an extract action for this file.

If you have enabled the information panel in the Settings menu additional information about the selected folders or files in the archive is displayed.