This makes the ZIP file format convenient for sharing and distributing groups of files. When this is done, the path and folder information of the file tree is preserved inside the ZIP file. In addition to compression, ZIP files are archives that can group together multiple files and folders. In the cloud, ZIP files are commonly found as both Gmail attachments, as well as files stored in Google Drive or other cloud-based storage systems such as Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive. Today, the ZIP file format remains in heavy use in the internet and in the cloud, with billions of such files in circulation. Once received, the ZIP file would then be opened and its contents decompressed ('unzipped') onto a user's computer. It also allowed for multiple files and folders to be grouped together ('zipped') and transferred as a single ZIP file. Using ZIP compression regularly saved minutes or even hours off of file transfers. In this era, file transfers occurred using MODEMs and transfer speeds were very limited.

The ZIP file format dates to the late 1980s when it received heavy use in pre-internet-era Bulletin Board Systems, or BBSes. The ZIP file format is very popular for efficiently storing and transferring groups of files in a variety of business and personal applications. (1) Right-click on any compressed file and select ‘Get Info’.ZIP files are compressed archives that group together one or more files into a single file, compressing the files (making them smaller) that are contained inside. Setting up Unarchiver One as your default unarchiving tool couldn’t be easier. How to set up Unarchiver One as the default unarchiving tool And unlike Archive Utility, it also supports encryption and volume compression. Unarchiver One can save you huge amounts of disk space by compressing large files into much smaller sizes. In seconds, it can archive and unarchive tons of file formats including RAR, Zip, 7z, gzip, bzip2, and lots more. Unarchiver One is the best free archiving tool for Mac. This is because Apple has not significantly updated Archive Utility in the time since these types of features have become standard. Limited key featuresĪrchive Utility is missing key features such as archiving, encryption, and volume compression. While it does reduce file size, Archive Utility doesn’t have as great of a space-saving impact on disk space as other archiving apps. There are some very common archive formats that Archive Utility simply can’t handle, including the very popular rar format.

Creating a zip file mac