Zipping/Compressing Files
In the "Highlighting Sequential Files" lesson you created two folders titled "Test One" and "Test Two," in your "Documents" or "My Documents" folder of the "Libraries" area. In the "Test One" folder you created five files titled "One, Two, Three, Four and Five." If you are not at the computer where you created these folders and files, go back to the "Highlighting Sequential Files" lesson, create the folders and files, and then come back to this lesson. Zipping or compressing files is a way to bundle them all into one folder that is compressed, or smaller in size. If you need to email a teacher, boss or friend ten files, it is easier to zip them into one compressed folder, and email that folder. If you are need to save space on a USB memory stick, a zipped folder of songs, documents, etc. is very efficient. Do the following activity to zip and then copy, cut and paste the zipped folder of files from one folder to another folder. When you are finished move to the link at the bottom of this page titled "BACK" to go to the "Simple Windows Lessons" web page.
1. Press and hold down the Windows key and hit the letter r to bring up the Windows "Run" command.
2. Type "documents" (without the quotes).
3/ Hit the Enter key one time and you will be in the "List View" of the "Documents" or "My Documents" folder.
4. Hit the letter t until you hear "Test One."
5. Hit the Enter key one time to open the folder titled "Test One."
6. Press Control a to highlight all five files in the folder "Test One."
7. Hit the Applications key one time.
8. Down arrow to or hit the letter n to move to the "Send to" menu item.
9. Right arrow one time and you will hear "Compressed (zipped) folder."
10. Hit the Enter key one time on the "Compressed (zipped) folder" sub menu item and an edit area should come up for you to type a name in. If the properties for the "Test One" folder are set to "Read only," you will not be able to zip the folder. You may need to copy the five files into a different folder such as the main area of "Documents," or maybe the "Pictures" folder. We are assuming here that you can zip the files in the "Test One" folder.
11. Type the name "Files" in the edit area for the zipped folder you started creating in step "10" above.
12. Hit the Enter key one time and your zipped folder is created, with all five files in that folder.
13. Down or up arrow to the zipped "Files" folder.
14. Hit the Enter key one time on the zipped folder titled "Files."
15. Down arrow and up arrow to be sure all five files are in the zipped folder.
16. Press Alt left arrow to go back into the "Test One" folder.
17. Down and up arrow through the "Test One" folder and you should hear all five files, and the zipped "Files" folder.
18. Move to the zipped folder titled "Files."
19. Press Control c to copy the "Files" folder.
20. Alt left arrow until you are in the main "Documents" or "My Documents" folder.
21. Down arrow to the "Test Two" folder.
22. Hit the Enter key one time to open the "Test Two" folder.
23. Press Control v to paste the zipped "Files" folder into the "Test Two" folder.
24. Up or down arrow key to be sure the zipped "Files" folder is in the "Test Two" folder.
25. Alt left arrow until you are back in the "Test One" folder.
26. Down or up arrow to the zipped folder "Files" and hit the Delete key one time. A box will come up asking if you want to delete the folder.
27. Hit the Enter key one time to finish deleting the zipped "Files" folder.
28. Up arrow to the file at the top of the list of files. It should be the "Five" file.
29. Press and hold down the Control key and down arrow to the file titled "Three." Do not let go of the Control key!
30. With the Control key held down hit the Spacebar one time to highlight the file titled "Three." You now have the top file "Five" and the fourth file down the list titled "Three" highlighted.
31. Hit the Applications key one time.
32. Down arrow to or hit the letter n to move to the "Send to" menu item.
33. Right arrow one time and you will be on the "Compressed (zipped) folder" sub menu item.
34. Hit the Enter key one time and an edit box will come up where you can type the name you want for the zipped folder.
35. Type "Files Two" (without the quote) in the edit box for the new zipped folder.
36. Hit the Enter key one time and the zipped folder titled "Files Two" will be created and the files "Five and Three" will be in the zipped folder.
37. Up or down arrow to the "Files Two" zipped folder.
38. Press Control x to cut the "Files Two" zipped folder.
39. Alt right arrow until you get to the "Test Two" folder.
40. Press Control v to paste the "Files Two" zipped folder into the "Test Two" folder.
41. Down and up arrow to be sure the "Files Two" zipped folder is in the "Test Two" folder.
42. Press Alt F4 to close the Windows File Explorer.
NOTE: If you were emailing a friend the files in the "Test One" folder, you could zip them, and then attached the zipped folder to the email. Or, if you have attached a USB memory stick or external drive, you can copy the zipped folder to that device.