R. Craig Collins > Windows Crash Course > Zipping Files

Zipping files © R. Craig Collins, 2005

ZIP: A file that can contain multiple files, or more importantly, a file that is compressed to take up less space;
useful for emailing attachments, or for uploading.
NOTE: the ZIP contents are not always usable as is. Thus, you should not try to read or edit zip files until you download them and extract them. If redoing a lab, delete the zip, and edit the original files.

How to Zip: (Mac instructions at bottom)

Select the files you wish to zip

1. Right click the selected item (if you have selected several items, right click one of them)
2. Choose Send To
3. Choose Compressed (zipped) Folder
   
   
4. The new file will be created in the same location
5. Rename the file, if you like.
   
   

You may watch a short video on this below

The player controls, below, are play, pause and stop. You may wish to scroll down, stop the video, and restart it... s

Mac Users
To create a compressed file, either Control-click on the file or folder, and choose Create Archive , or you can click on a file, then go to the Action menu (the button that looks like a gear), and choose Create Archive from there. Either way, it quickly creates a new item, with the file extension “.zip.” This is the compressed file.

You can also compress several different files (like two, for example) into one single archive file — just Command-click (or Shift-click contiguous files) on all the files you want included, then choose Create Archive of x Items from the Action menu. (See below)
A file will be created named “Archive.zip."

If someone sends you a ZIP file, just double-click it and OS X will automatically decompress it.