Zipping Your Files
If you’re sending and receiving files through e-mail, you need to have a file compression software or a “zip” utility. Do not confuse this with the “Zip Drive”, which is an external storage unit. The zip utility is actually a software program. Having this software is essential for many reasons:
- Zip files are an Internet standard. If you have not gotten a zipped file already, you will get one soon!
- Compressed files are smaller in size, so they take less time to send and receive.
- If you have a bunch of files to send and you zip them up, you only need to send one file (the zipped file). The recipient also will receive and handle one file as an attachment. Compare this with having to attach several files at your end and then the recipient having to save all these attachment one by one.
- If you download files from the Internet, they will most probably be archived (zipped).
There are many "Zip / Unzip" software programs
out there. If you don't have one already, try WinZip, a popular, easy to
use shareware program. To download WinZip, visit this web site:
http://www.winzip.com
After installing WinZip, you can zip a file directly from Windows Explorer by clicking on the file with the RIGHT mouse button and selecting “Add to Zip” from the pop-up menu. If you want to zip a bunch of files, simply select them all, or select the folder they are in, and RIGHT click and select "Add to Zip". In the following example, the folder "Data" is selected to be zipped into the file "Data.zip":
To unzip a file, simply double click on it. You can then view or run the files inside it right from the WinZip window, or if you prefer, unzip them to your hard drive.
