Files have always grown bigger and bigger and they will continue to grow bigger in future as well. However, your storage media cannot grow with the same rate as that of the file growth rate. Even if you have lots of free space available, it would be pointless to waste it by storing files of enormous size. So how do you optimize on saving space then? Well the answer is simple! Just Zip your files!

Zipping a file means compressing a file so that it occupies less space on your storage media such as hard drive or DVD. This will not only save you on disk space but also help you organize your data in a much more efficient way and make your computer work faster! Zipping files is often what people do when they want to send large files by emails or upload large files to there website where there is not a lot of room to upload a whole big file.

So, back to the question how to Zip a file? You can do this is in 3 simple easy steps which are shown below and show you the best way to unzip a file.

1. Step One

Go to the file that you want to be zipped/compressed. In case of two or more files, add them in one folder and rename the folder to whatever you want it to be called.

2. Step Two

Right click on the file or folder depending on what you choose as per step one followed by ‘Send to' and then selecting ‘Compressed Zip Folder'. This feature is in built into Windows XP and the higher versions so you will not have to download any programs although the program built into Windows has limited tool that you can use. Now you have to go and right click the file and then click zip file. You now should have a zipped file but if you are not using windows you will have to download and install a program such as winzip which allows you to zip programs in a flash. If you are going to use winzip you have to right click the file and choose send to and then you will need to find winzip in the list now you can go into winzip and click zip files it will now zip the files for you and they will be ready to be unzipped.

3. Step Three

The zipped file that you would get after compression would be a .zip file and a copy of your contents. You can either choose to delete your original files/folder or just let it remain, as per your convenience. The zipped file won't need those original files anymore now. Also, the outcome would be only one zip file no matter how many files you zip. When you unzip the file, you would get all your files as they were before zipping. Now all you have to do is upload it to what ever your going to be using to carry the files and you have now finished zipping the file.