zipping files

Not that I use it that often, but does osx have a zipping utility built in? Maybe that compression tactic is old school. Is there a new one that should/could be used for many files.
Thanks!

Right click the files > Compress. That's it.

vansmith said:

Right click the files > Compress. That's it.

Click to expand...

Now, I don't compress files anymore but know that the option existed and that there are a number of terminal programs that can handle the operation.

BUT, out of curiosity, I went to Finder and selected a couple of files - double clicked the trackpad - there was no option to 'compress' the files; checked in the Finder menu bar and the 'Compress' command was grayed out - hmmm?

Found a short discussion in the Apple Communities which suggested checking the the System -> .... CoreServices for the App icon shown in the attached image (arrow) - well, it was present, so I simply right-click and the 'Compress' command was present; then retested as before and 'Compress' now is not grayed out in my Finder menu - have no idea what the issue might have been, but if others have the same experience, then the maneuvers I used could help - Dave
.

Oh Super! It does work and it does create a .zip file. I wasn't sure what compress actually did. Now I know. Many thanks!

RadDave said:

Found a short discussion in the Apple Communities which suggested checking the the System -> .... CoreServices for the App icon shown in the attached image (arrow) - well, it was present, so I simply right-click and the 'Compress' command was present; then retested as before and 'Compress' now is not grayed out in my Finder menu - have no idea what the issue might have been, but if others have the same experience, then the maneuvers I used could help - Dave
.

Click to expand...

That's weird - I have no idea why that would work nor do I know what that enables...

vansmith said:

That's weird - I have no idea why that would work nor do I know what that enables...

Click to expand...

Well continued 'weirdness' -

The issue returned, i.e. 'Compress' is not in the right-click context menu and the option is grayed-out in the Finder menu bar; PLUS, it is identical on our iMac (both running the same most recent version of Mavericks).

Did some more searching and found a discussion on the app Total Finder causing the problem (screen capture from their website below) - I have the program installed on both of our Mavericks machines - not sure that is the cause w/o uninstalling the app and testing again - will try to contact Total Finder support and see if the latest version is acting up w/ Mavericks? Dave
.