How to compress archives with WinRAR

Introduction

In the present, is very frequent to use compressed archives to interchange information. The advantages of the compression are several: first of all the files occupy less space in the hard disk or in any removable storage used means; secondly it takes less time in transmitting because they are lighter; and finally, several documents can be compacted in one single element.

One of the frequently used programs to compress archives is WinRAR. The extension of the files generated by this application is .rar. Other well-known compressors are WinZip and 7-Zip.

In this brief manual, we will explain you how to compress a group of documents in a single file using WinRAR.

Instructions

1. First of all, you will need to have WinRAR already installed. If you have not still lowered it, you can unload for free, in ours web site. The installation used to be very fast and simple. We suggested you to leave the values selected by default when arriving at the window with the configuration options. The predefined configuration of the Shell integration section (Integration with the shell) is particularly useful to make faster the processes of compression and decompression of archives through the contextual menu.

If you have already installed the WinRAR, then you would be able to compress folders, documents and groups of files in a very easy way. If you prefer to modify the options` values of integration with the shell, then you will need to open the main window of the application, get in the menu, go to Options and then select Settings (Configuration).

Once the window is already opened, you will need to select the Integration label, and then mark the options that we have suggested to you.

2. The first step is to find and select the files that you want to compress by using the Explorer of Windows. You will be able to select more than one file by pressing the Ctrl key and the main button of your mouse at the same time. Like this, you will be selecting one by one the documents to be compress.

In order to clear the selection of a file, you would need to press again the Ctrl key and the main button of the mouse once you are on it.

3. Once you have all the files selected, you will need to press the secondary button of the mouse (used to be the right one) once you are on any of the documents selected in blue.

It will appear a contextual menu where you will see the options that WinRAR offers you:

• Add to Archive (add to file): It allows you to add the selected documents to a new or pre-existing compressed file.
• Add to "to icons.rar" (add to "[suggested name].rar"): This option would compresses the selected documents in the between commas specified file.
• Compress and email... (To compress and to send by email): It would compresses the selected documents, and after that, would automatically open your default client of mail, in order to be send by this way.
• Compress to "to icons.rar" and email (To compress in "[suggested name].rar" and to be send by email): It compresses the selected documents in a between commas specified file, and would automatically open your default client of mail in order to be send by this way.

The window that shows WinRAR with the options to compress documents is very similar in all the cases. In this example, we are going to use the Add to archive, by clicking on it.

• It would appear the window Archive name and parameters where we would be able to introduce a convenient denomination for our compressed file and to set up other interesting questions.

In this manual we will not analyze all the options in detail, because the idea is to demonstrate the basic process of compression. In the field Archive name

is necessary to write the denomination that we will use for this file.

WinRAR will always suggest a name in this field for your file, but you would be able to modify it. If already exists a compressed file and you want to add to it the selected documents, then you would need first to press the Browse button and then select the file.

In this example, we will denominate it " iconos.rar".

• An interesting characteristic of the WinRAR, is that it gives the possibility of dividing the generated file in several smaller parts. This option is particularly useful when we need to compress a file to keep it in diskettes or movable memories that do not have that much capacity.

In order to make this, you would need to write in the Split to volumes the maximum size (in bytes) that you want to have in each part, and WinRAR will be in charge to divide the file compressed in so many archives as it is necessary.

You can also choose a size of the menu that unfolds when pressing the arrow.

• The rest of the options will not be analyzed right now. We are now ready to generate the compressed file.

We need just to click in the Accept button.

• It will appear a window that indicates the progress of the compression. This process will take more or less time depending on the size of the selected documents. When finalizing, the compressed file will appear in the directory that we have specified for the creation.

• If we want to see the content of the generated file, once we are on the file, we would need just to double click with the main button of the mouse. Automatically, WinRAR will be executed and it will show you the compressed documents.

Summary

The following is a brief list of the principals steps you would need to follow in order to succeed with the compressing documents process:

1. Select the documents that you want to compress, and then press the secondary button of the mouse on them.
2. In the contextual menu, select the Add to archive option.
3. Once in the window that appears, introduce in the field Archive name a convenient name for the compressed file.
4. If it is necessary to divide the generated file in parts of a specific size, then introduce this value in the Split to volumes field.
5. Press the Accept button.

As you can appreciate, the procedure is very simple. You can also compress complete folders following the same steps.

Just try it and test all the options that came in your mind in order to learn more about all the advantages of this compression tool.