Using the Dock Icon

The quickest way to zip or unzip files is to drag them to the WinZip® icon on the Dock.

Putting WinZip on the Dock

To be able to drag files to the WinZip icon at any time, it needs to be placed on the Dock. The first time you run WinZip, the icon may be installed on the Dock for you automatically. If you did not install the icon on the Dock during the first use of WinZip, do the following: first, drag the WinZip application (WinZip.app application bundle) to your Applications folder if it has not already been done. Then drag it from the Applications folder to the Dock.

Opening a Zip file with the Dock Icon

To open a Zip file, drag it from your desktop or Finder window and drop it on the WinZip icon on the Dock. The Zip file will be opened in WinZip.

Running a backup job file with the Dock Icon

To run a WinZip job file (.wjf), drag it from your desktop or Finder window and drop it on the WinZip icon on the Dock. The job file will be opened/run silently in WinZip. If WinZip was prefiously not running then WinZip will automatically close again when the job is finished.

Creating a New Zip file with the Dock Icon

To zip your files into a new Zip file, drag the files from the desktop or Finder window and drop them on the WinZip icon on the Dock. The following window appears:

  1. Select the Operation: if the Create new Zip file pane is not selected, click on the tab.
  2. Choose a Destination: select the folder where the Zip file is to be created.

    You may have a Where field with a dropdown list of folders instead of the folder pane shown in the screenshot. To show the folder pane instead, click on the arrow button next to the Save As field (highlighted by number 3 in the screenshot above).

  3. Save As: enter the name for your Zip file.
  4. Pick a Format: the default format is based on the setting in Preferences. You can choose Zip (Compatibility) to create a Zip file compatible with the legacy Zip 2.0 specifications. You can also choose Zipx Best compression) to create the smallest possible compressed file (requires WinZip (Mac), WinZip 12.1 or greater (Windows), or a Zipx compatible compression utility). Another option is the ability to create an LHA file.
  5. Filter: select the filter to limit what files are added to the zip file.
  6. Encrypt: if you would like to have the Zip file encrypted, check the Encrypt box and specify a password. Enter the password a second time to verify that there are no typos. The file will be encrypted using the encryption method specified in Preferences. This option is ignored if you choose LHA as the file format.

Click on the Zip button to create the Zip file, zip the dropped files/folders, and add them to the new Zip file.

Adding to an Open or Recently Opened Zip file with the Dock Icon

To zip your files into an open or recently opened Zip file, drag the files from the desktop or Finder window and drop them on the WinZip icon on the dock. The following window appears:

If the Add to existing Zip file pane is not selected, click on the tab to select it.

  1. Choose Currently Open or Recently Opened: when no Zip files are currently open, the default is to list the most recently used Zip files. If you already have one or more Zip files open, the default is to list the open Zip files. If you have Zip files open but want to add the dropped files into a recently opened Zip file, click on the Recently Opened button to see the list of recently opened Zip files. Click on Currently Open to go back to the list of open Zip files.
  2. Select the Zip file: click on the Zip file into which you want to zip the dropped files.
  3. Encrypt: if you would like to have the Zip file encrypted, check the Encrypt box and specify a password. Enter the password a second time to verify that there are no typos. The file will be encrypted using the encryption method specified in Preferences. This option is ignored if you chose an LHA file for the destination.
  4. Zip the files: click on the Zip button to open the selected Zip file (if it isn't already open), zip the dropped files/folders, and add them to the Zip file. If the Zip file selected is an open Zip file, the results will be added to the current folder selected in the open Zip file. If the selected Zip file is a recently opened Zip file, the files are added to the main folder of the Zip file.
Zip and Emailing with the Dock Icon

To zip your files and create a new email message with the Zip file attached, drag the files from the desktop or Finder window and drop them on the WinZip icon on the dock. The following window box appears:

If the Zip and Email pane is not selected, click on the tab to select it.

The Format and Encrypt choices are the same as for creating a new Zip file using the Dock icon.

  1. Picture Size: if the Zip file includes pictures, additional space savings can be obtained by reducing the picture size. Using this feature does not alter the size of the original pictures in the Zip file. Only copies stored in a temporary copy of the Zip file to be attached to the email message are resized. Pictures are only reduced, never enlarged. The aspect ratio, the ratio of the width to the height of the picture, is also maintained. The choices for size are Actual Size (the image size is not changed), Smaller (the picture is reduced to fit in an area 640 x 480 pixels), Small (the picture is reduced to fit in an area 800 x 600 pixels), Medium (the picture is reduced to fit in an area 1024 x 768 pixels), Large (the picture is reduced to fit in an area 1280 x 1024 pixels), X-Large (the picture is reduced to fit in an area 1920 x 1536 pixels), and XX-Large (the picture is reduced to fit in an area 2880 x 2304 pixels).
  2. Compose Message: click on the Compose Message button to create a temporary Zip file, zip the dropped files/folders, and add them to the Zip file. A new message is created using Apple Mail with the Zip file attached. After the email is sent, saved, or canceled, the temporary Zip file is erased.