Create a Zip archive in Mac OS X
The Mac OS X Finder includes the ability to create ZIP-formatted compressed archives. Compressed archives provide a quick and convenient method to:
- reduce the size of one or more files/folders before transferring them over the Internet
- bundling two or more files/folders together into a single archive file.
The ZIP file format is a cross-platform compression format that is perhaps more common on Microsoft Windows that the Macintosh platform. Therefore, Mac OS X compressed archives are useful for transferring to other Mac OS X users, as well as to Windows users.
Note: We cannot guarantee that all types of files that are bundled into a Mac OS X compressed archive will work on Microsoft Windows computers. You will need to communicate with the recipient of any files you transfer in this archive format to make sure that the files within work properly at their destination.
To create a compressed ZIP archive in the Finder:
- Highlight one or more files to select them. The selected files and folders will be included in the compressed archive.
- Choose "Create Archive" from the File menu.
That's it. The archive file that is created will have a ".zip" extension, and is created in the same location where the original files appeared. The original files are not removed or affected in any way.