Nora Brown Design

Files to send? Zip 'em!

My website design clients often have several files to send me throughout the course of the project—including image files, Word and other text documents, and pdfs. Rather than send multiple attachments in several emails, it can be easier to “zip” those files together and send them all at once.

Mac OSX

On a Mac, it couldn’t be easier to create and send a zip archive. Simple put all the relevant files into a folder. Control-click this folder and select “Compress ‘folder name’”. You’ll then have a zipped copy of the folder, which you can email.

Windows

According to the Microsoft website, on Windows Vista the process is similar: Right-click a file or folder, point to Send To, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder, and a new compressed folder is created.

On previous versions of Windows, you’ll need a separate zip utility, such as WinZip or Stuffit.

File still too large?

If you have several large image files, they may be too large to send as an email attachment, zipped or not. Generally the limit is around 5MB to 10MB. There are a couple of online services that solve this problem: DropSend, and YouSendIt.