Mac 101: Create Zip Files
Before converting to Mac I ran Windows, which to my knowledge, has no built-in capability to create zip files forcing users to download and install a third party application. After converting to Mac it took me several years to realize that OS X had the built-in functionality to create zip files, which delighted me!
To create a zip file in OS X (Tiger or Leopard):
- Right click on the file or folder you would like to zip
- Select “Compress … ” or in Tiger “Create an Archive of …”
Creating zips is great if you heavily rely on email for your main form of communication; instead of attaching several documents to an email I make a new folder, name it properly, drop in all of my files, and zip it. Then I log into my favorite email client and attach the one zipped file instead of several single files, which saves me time and is easier for both me, the sender, and the receiver who now only has to download one file.
elpres on September 17th, 2008 at 9:30 am
On Windows: select files, right click, “Send to”, “Compressed folder”
Jim on September 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am
You realize that if you attach a folder to a message in Mail, Mail will transparently zip it for you, right? You’re making it needlessly complicated.
Staff Comment Josh Pigford, TheAppleBlog on September 17th, 2008 at 10:16 am
@elpres: Is that in all versions of Windows? Or just Vista? I know back when I used windows I always just used WinZip thinking Windows didn’t have anything available. But I could very well have just missed it. :)
@Jim: Thanks for the tip for Mail. The tip obviously still applies for other uses, though.
John on September 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
@Josh Built in to Windows Explorer beginning with WinXP. So, probably about 99% of Windows machines at this point.
Jenny on September 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am
@elpres @ Josh: same thing with me, I haven’t used Windows in a VERY long time, but when I used to use it I thought you had to install a 3rd party app.
Bob on September 17th, 2008 at 11:39 am
John is correct. Built-in since XP.
Terry on September 17th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
gosh, Jenny, what were you using? Windows 3.1? That’s a cheap shot at Windows who has had built-in zip for a long time!
Jim on September 17th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Mac OS was the LAST OS to have a .zip compression utility built-in. Remember PKZip? It was ugly and cumbersome, but it was there long before the Mac OS had it.
Joanne on September 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Thanks for the tip, Jenny. I, like you, thought you still had to use WinZip to zip stuff on Windows. Anyway, your post, combined with the comments, has been extremely helpful. Keep ‘em coming!
Bram on September 19th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Only problem is that the zips you create aren’t very windows friendly (some Mac system files always find their way in).
Anyone got a solution for that?
Bob on December 10th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Can pc users open files zipped in a mac?
Darrell Etherington on December 10th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
@Bob
You should be able to open the archive just fine, but you’ll have a “_MACOSX” file and a “_MACOSX” folder in addition to the original files you created the archive from on the Mac.
Amaranth on August 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I tried to create a .zip of 11 pdf files I had this way, byt ‘compressing’ them in Leopard, and it made an Archive.zip file, that LOOKED like a zip file, but the size was not reduced at all….
Can anyone tell me what i’m doing wrong? Or suggest a program I should use? I need to zip and send something fast!