Compress A Bunch Of Files Into One Zip Archive For Easier Sharing [OS X Tips]

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Compress in Finder

I remember back in the olden, pre-OS X days, when you’d need to use a utility like Stuffit to compress a bunch of files together into one archive, shedding excess data and making it easier to get those files to your recipient due to much smaller bandwidth back then.

That’s not to say it’s not a valuable strategy, even with today’s cloud infrastructure. Getting a bunch of files into one archive makes the logistics of sending someone a ton of files a lot easier, even if there’s less of a need to compress them for bandwidth reasons.

Here’s how to do just that, using the tools already built into your OS X Mac.

First up, gather all the files you want to put together, and select all of them in the Finder, either with a Shift-click to select multiple sequential items, or Command-click to select multiple non-contiguous items. Either way, you’ll need a bunch of single files selected at once.

Next, right-click on any one of the items (or Control-click, or two-finger click on your trackpad), and choose Compress Items. You’ll get a new file, named Archive.zip, that will contain all your items in one simple file. It’s much easier now to send this archive file along to your contacts, via email, iMessage, or what have you.

Via: TechRadar

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