Whats a zip file.....

Many times I have seen people who are confused about what a zip file actually is. There are other extensions that are also zip files such as .rar.

I have thought of an mental illustration of what a zip file actually is. Imagine if you will you are going on a vacation. You decide to put everything out on your bed that you plan to take with you. Clothing, grooming items, shoes etc. There is quite a mound of items there. You KNOW you cannot just carry all the items seperately, they take up more room, they are cumbersome and you only have 2 hands.....so you get out a SUITCASE that you can ZIP!

So you start taking all your items and stuffing them into the suitcase. You even find you have room for more as you are able to pack them even tighter since you will be able to ZIP around them. Then you have only one handle you have to deal with and if you have the right kind of suitcase it even has wheels and you can easily get it from destination to destination though its heavier than you could normally carry the whole way. You can check this luggage in at the airport and let them carry it almost to the final destination where you pick it up and drag it to your fancy luxury motel.

When you get to your motel room, you cannot just use the items in the suitcase until you UNZIP it. You can unzip it each time you want something and get one or two things out but to get the best use is to unzip it, and unpack it and start placing the items you have brought in places where you can use them or where they belong...the dresser, the bathroom, the closet hanging up etc.

OK.....now to fully use this analogy.

Someone somewhere wants to send a boatload of files or information. If they send it file by file would be huge and take up a lot of space and take a lot of time. Instead they decide to "zip" the files into a zip file package (or .rar package). this zip file gets rid of some extraneous information that allows the zip file to be a little smaller than the files are by themselves. Then this zip file can be uploaded to the net (like checking luggage on an airplane) and sent to its destination.

When the zip file arrives in its natural state it is a great way to store something but you cannot use the information until you "unzip" it. Inisde you will find sometimes one file that is large sometimes many files. As you unzip them you choose where in your computer "hotel suite" you want to unpack your files to. If they are font files you will place them in your system font folder or in another folder that you have set up to store your font files, if they are photos you can put in your "my pictures" file etc. once unzipped you are able to access the individual files where you cannot if they are in the zipped file.

The one thing that is different between a zipped file on your computer and a suitcase....once you empty things out of a suitcase they are gone...a zipped file remains intact and when you unzip it, moves copies of the items inside but the files actually remain in the zip file. You can then delete the zip file once you have unzipped it or keep it for future reference. If you have a large hard drive sometimes good to keep zipped files...if your hard drive is small, once you verify it all works can delete it.

Zip files also have the ability to password protect them. This can keep someone who intercepts the file from being able to unzip it without a password.

YOu can download winzip for unzipping files but windows xp and above have a utility already built in that allows you to unzip a .zip file but not a .rar file. Winrar is available free for 30 days but not for longer than that. ONe thing that is great about winrar is the ability to unzip a lot of files at one time.

Ok that is enough for todays lesson....please let me know if this analogy makes any sense to those of you who know what zip files are and those who kind of knew...and those who didn't have a clue.

Tanya