My MacBook Pro and creating an archive (zip) file

[Lsrichards]

Hello All,

I have an MBP OS X v.10.5.8

I work with video a lot and often the files are large. I'd love the ability to zip the files. I went on the Apple site for help and quickly found a page that said all I had to do was basically right click on the file and choose 'Create an Archive."

However, I do not have this option. The closest I have is an option to "Compress" and while that is ok, it does not help enough to make it worth it.

I greatly appreciate any help you guys and gals can offer.

Thank you!

Larry Richards

Here's the info from the Apple page:

Tip of the Week
Making ZIP Files (Compressed Files) in One Click

One of my favorite Mac OS X features is the ability to create ZIP compressed files from within the OS (basically, this shrinks the file size, ideal for files you’re going to email — smaller file sizes mean faster file transfers). To create a compressed file, either Control-click on the file and choose Create Archive (which is Apple-speak for “make a compressed ZIP file”). Or you can click on a file, then go to the Action menu (the button that looks like a gear up in the Finder window’s toolbar), and choose Create Archive from there. Either way, it quickly creates a new file, with the file extension “.zip.” This is the compressed file. You can also compress several different files (like three, for example) into one single archive file — just Command-click (or Shift-click contiguous files) on all the files you want included, then choose Create Archive of X Items from the Action menu. A file will be created named “Archive.zip” (that’s it!). By the way, if someone sends you a ZIP file, don’t sweat it — just double-click it and Tiger will automatically decompress it.

 

[louishen]

Create archive was the name for creating a zip file in OSX tiger 10.4

This was changed to compress in leopard 10.5

However, especially if you are using a modern codec, the file is already very well compressed. Trying to compress it further will not gain much.

Its a bit like jumping up and down on the contents of your waste bin. That will compress it, but jumping up and down on its contents some more will not compress its contents much more

 

[6string]

I'm on 10.6.x
I just created a 3 empty folders and put 2 into one on the desktop just for testing purposes.
I then right clicked, selected compress, and it created a zip file half the size of the original! 8KB-4KB
To test again with a larger file, I just compressed a 448 MB file, now 172 MB Zip file.
I don't see what the problem is!
Am I missing something here?

 

[christophH]

Followed the above directions but...

I have a folder (with a dozen or files) on my desktop that is 363.6 MB. I right click it. I select Compress "___ scans". And a few seconds later I have a zip file by the same name that is 362 MB. What am I missing here? I've followed the same directions on a number of websites but the file size doesn't reduce enough for me to email it with my gmail account (25 MB or fewer)... I'm quite frustrated. Can anyone help? Cheers!

 

[6string]

What are the files in that folder?
ie jpegs and many other files are already compressed, so they won't be made much smaller when zipped.

 

[christophH]

@6String... jpegs

Thanks for your response. They're high quality jpegs. Your answer and louishen's replies make sense to me now.

That said, I've received zipped folders full of high quality images before that I had to unzip.

Any advice on sending the images?

(I'd like to do it without reducing their print quality too much. They're A3-sized scans from a newspaper. I know how to reduce the quality and send them as pdfs but that is really a last resort.)

Do I need something like Winzip or Stuffit or Winrar? And if so, could you recommended an open source equivalent?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[6string]

I really don't know of a solution that will work other than diving the files up and sending in multiple messages.
I am pretty sure that there are alternative email clients that allow you to send larger files, but I think someone will have to chime on on this one.
The other alternative, is uploading the images to something like image shack uploader (image hosting sites), and send the links.
Also, DropBox.
https://www.dropbox.com/

 

[TattooedMac]

https://www.dropbox.com/

Gotta love DropBox . . . . +1