What is WinZip 

This is not a course. It is a ...

Tip Sheet

How to Unzip files

WinZip is a popular programme which

	saves disk storage space by compressing (zips) many files into one big file or archive
	extracts (unzips) one big compressed file or archive back into separate files

WinZip is sold as shareware and is available via the Internet. A copy of the WinZip programme is found in the Programmes folder on this CD. There are many ways of using WinZip.  This Tip sheet shows one way how it can be used to zip and unzip files.  The WinZip programme has a tutorial available from the Help menu but this Tip sheet may be of assistance.  Important words are

	archive - a file with a structure that allows storage of multiple files within it, a collection of computer files
	extract - decompress or unzip a file
	unzip - to extract files from the archive to the folder specified
	compress - make smaller

WinZip is useful when you want to send files via the Internet to someone and do not want to waste telephone time by transferring many large files, or when you want to save space on your computer.  WinZip compresses files making them more compact and organised into an archive.  

In the example we will compress five files into one big archive called Funwords.zip  Note that the big zipped archive or file has the extension zip.  We will unzip one file Funwords.zip into five files.