Creating a zip file via the gui?

[Hippo Man]

Is there a way to create a zip file via the gui of OS X?

I know about the "zip" command that can be invoked from the Terminal, but I want someone who doesn't use (nor has any desire to learn about) the Terminal to zip up some folders that are to be sent to some Windows users.

It's important that the resulting archive files end up with a .zip suffix and not .sisx or anything else.

Furthermore, I'm hoping that this can be done without the need for any third-party software.

Am I out of luck?

Thanks in advance.

PS: I'm talking about "zip", not "gzip".

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[Mikuro]

In 10.3 or later, you can select "Create Archive of [item]" from the File menu (or from the contextual menu) in the Finder. This creates a zip.

If you unzip the resulting archive on Windows, you might see some normally-invisible files that contain Mac-only data. Everything will still work, but if you intend the archive to be given to Windows users, you might want to use a third-party program for neatness' sake.

 

[Hippo Man]

Thank you very much. I didn't realize that "Create Archive ..." actually created a .zip file.

Luckily, the extra hidden files won't be a problem in the particular case that I mentioned here.

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