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Olga Weis
Aug 4, 2021
If you have a lot of old records and information taking up space on your computer, you can compress them into a small archive. macOS allows you to compress information directly from the OS. You can also get third-party ZIP programs for Mac, like Commander One, that can be more efficient.
Table of contents:
Creating a ZIP archive on Mac is easy, and with compression tools built right into macOS, there is no need to download additional ZIP utilities for Mac or plugins to quickly create ZIP archives and compress a single file, a group of files, or an entire folder.
If you are not familiar with creating ZIP archives on Mac, here's how to do it accurately and quickly:
Select a file to be added to the archive.
Select the option Compress.
After that, a new archive appeared in the same Finder folder. It can be used in any convenient way: send it over the Internet, leave it in storage, transfer it to an external drive.
To compress multiple files and/or folders, create a new folder (Shift + Cmd + N) in Finder or on your desktop and name it whatever you want the ZIP on Mac to be called.
If you do not want to create and delete folders while zipping files on Mac, select all the items, right click them and select Compress selected file(s)(N), where N is the number of files you selected.
You can change the destination of your compressed files by opening an application that performs compression. It's called the Archive Utility and can be found using Spotlight search.
An unusual but efficient way to create ZIP file on Mac is in the Terminal. It is the Windows equivalent of the command line and allows macOS users to execute various commands. This is how you can create a ZIP file on Mac using the command line only:
Another easy way to create an archive from the command line is to use the drag and drop feature supported in the Terminal, enter ZIP command as usual, and then drag the file (s) to compress into the Terminal window.
The simplest function of creating a ZIP file on Mac is integrated into the operating system itself. Unfortunately, it does not allow setting parameters and serves solely for combining files and compressing their size. The built-in archiver may find it too tough for dealing with an encrypted archive or, say, a file that is split into several volumes for ease of transfer. That is why for those who often deal with archives, it makes sense to install an additional ZIP utility for Mac.
Programs from third-party developers have much more functionality. They are able to perform numerous tasks, work with a wide range of extensions, and have convenient integration into the context menu. For instance, Commander One. In fact, the program is a cool file manager with wide functionality.
But besides that, it is a powerful tool for unpacking and creating archives in formats: ZIP, RAR, 7Zip, TBZ, TGZ, etc. This zipping software for Mac supports encryption function for archives, offers hotkeys combinations for both compressing files and compressing files with options, has a convenient archive toolbar button, allows setting internal compression ratio as well as offers much more additional features for efficient and perfect file management.
ZIP is a common file archive format that allows you to work with multiple directories. It provides compression of information by different algorithms, more often Deflate. The standard was developed by Phil Katz in 1989 and implemented in PKZIP software from PKWARE. ZIP is the most widely used archive format that you may come across and is used to transport and store information. To view and use the files stored in the archive, you need to unpack it, that is, extract the files into a regular folder.
There are many reasons to zip file on Mac. With multiple ways to create ZIP archives on macOS, you can quickly and easily put all of your individual files into one compressed archive. Of course, even zipped files for Mac can be too large. If you are dealing with situations where you need files to remain less than a certain size, you may need to turn to a different type of archive file.
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