How to Zip a file on a Mac

If you have a lot of old documents and data that taking up space on your iMac/Macbook, you can zip them into an archive to save space on your storage. Mac OS X allows you to compress files directly from the OS. You can also do that by a third-party compression software that may be more effective.

Follow this tutorial to learn how to compress your old files.

Method 1: The Finder

1. Open “Finder” from the dock located at the bottom of your Mac screen, and locate the data that you want to ZIP it.

2. Select your files and do a right click and select “Compress Items”, just like below.

3. After you compress your items, you will notice it next to the old data, and if you check you notice that the size of your data is compressed.

Method 2: Using Third-party software

1. Find Zip application, and I prefer “iZip”, you can simply download it from Here, and it will be like that after the installation is done.

2. Run “iZip” just like below, and it may ask to install a missing component, click “Install”.

3. After the installation is done, click “Create Archive” to compress some old data.

4. Give your archive a name and specify it’s location.

5. Click “Next” and leave this option unchecked.

6. If you want to set a password for your ZIP file, do a check on “Enable Password Protection”, and write down your password and click Next.

7. This option will only show to the password protected zip file, leave it as it’s and click Next.

8. Now let’s select the old data that you want to compress, add data by clicking the “+” button, or you can just drag and drop the data.

9. After that, the wizard will confirm with you all the selection you had made.

10. By clicking Next, “iZip” will start to compress your data.

Now your Data is simply compressed.