Compressing Files
When you have multiple files to send to us electronically, we usually recommend
"zipping" them before sending them to us. If you're stumped when we say this,
you're not alone. We put this page together to explain a little about zips and
other compressed files, how to make them and why you'd want to.
If you need to send multiple files to someone via email or FTP, and want to only
mess with one file, or if you want to reduce the overall size of files you're
sending without taking things out or irreversibly reducing their quality, try
putting them in a zip file. Zip is a popular format for compressing and
archiving data. A zip file contains one or more files that have some degree of
compression applied to them. Other common archive formats include RAR, ACE,
and TAR.
In the past, one needed a shareware or other third-party utility like WinZip to
make and open a zip file. However, modern versions of Windows and Mac ship
with built-in support. In windows, there are a couple ways to make a zip file:
- In Windows explorer or on your desktop, right-click somewhere (not on a file
or folder) and select New>Compressed (zipped) Folder. Name it and drag
your files to it.
- Select your files (highlighting all of them), right-click on the selection,
and select Send To>Compressed (zipped) Folder. This method will usually
create the zip file for you, add your files to it, and name it after the
file or folder you right-clicked on.
To extract files from a zip file using the built-in Windows zip functionality is
pretty easy to. Simply right-click the zip file and select Extract All. The
compressed folders wizard will then pop up. The wizard will prompt you for a
place to save the extracted files. And unless you unchecked the box at the
end, it will even open the folder containing your extracted files. And like
everything else in Windows, there's more than one way to do this too. You can
also extract files by double clicking the zip file. If you don't have another
program installed that has taken over the zip format, the zip file should open
as if it's a folder. You can then drag files out and into another folder one at
a time, or all at once.
This is pretty convenient, as it can quickly pack many files and folders into
a single file. But the built-in zip functionality in Windows isn't very good at
compressing them. So if your goal is making your files as small as possible,
a separate utility is still something you might want to consider.
Most zip utilities are shareware and/or will hijack the zip file format, removing
the features of the built-in zip functionality of Windows. This might not sound
bad, but the built-in zipping is definitely handy for those times when you
want to quickly zip or extract something when compression is not a concern and
you don't feel like messing with opening a program. So how does one get to have
their cake and eat it too? With a program called 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a free,
open-source program that has pretty good compression, and is an all-in-one solution,
supporting most archive formats. It even has its own archive format, which
offers even better compression. You can get 7-Zip from
http://www.7-zip.org/.
