Working with Archives

Mac OS X's archive feature enables you to create compressed copies of items called archived files or archives. Archives take up less space on disk than regular files. You may find them useful for backing up files or for sending files to others over a network or via e-mail.

Tip

• The archive feature uses ZIP format compression, which was originally developed as a DOS and Windows PC format. As a result, document archives created with this feature are fully compatible with DOS and Windows PCs.

To archive a file or folder

1.	Select the item you want to archive (Figure 48). Figure 48. Select the item you want to archive.
2.	Choose File > Create Archive of "Item Name" (Figure 49). Figure 49. Choose Create Archive from the File menu.
3.	Wait while your computer creates the archive. While it works, a Copy status dialog appears (Figure 50). When the dialog disappears, the archive file appears in the same location as the original as a .zip file (Figure 51). Figure 50. A Copy progress dialog appears while the file is being compressed. Figure 51. An archive file has a .zip file extension.

Tip

• You can archive mul Tiple items at once. Select the items, then choose File > Create Archive of n items (where n is the number of selected items). When the archive appears, it will be named Archive.zip.

To open an archive

Double-click the archive file. The archive's contents are uncompressed and appear in the same window as the archive file.