WinZip Jobs and the Job Wizard

WinZip jobs automate the process of creating and updating Zip files. They are great for your repetitive zipping tasks, such as:

• Periodic data backups
• Periodic data archival
• Periodic packaging and transmission of reports, spreadsheets, etc.

WinZip jobs let you specify what files you want zipped, how you want them zipped, and where the resulting Zip files should go. If you want to fully automate the process, you can even specify when you want them to run.

You can create your own jobs using the WinZip Job Wizard, or you can use pre-configured jobs, included with WinZip Pro, to quickly zip common items such as My Documents, the Desktop, or your Windows Mail, Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail. Starting with WinZip 14, pre-configured jobs on Windows 7 can zip your Documents library, your Pictures library, or all of your libraries.

The Job Wizard

The easy-to-use Job Wizard helps you create your own jobs. It guides you, in a few quick steps, through the process of specifying exactly how your job should work.

Using the Job Wizard you can specify:

• Which files and folders you want to zip, and how they should be compressed
• What the Zip file should be named and where it should go (Zip file names can include variable components such as the date and time so that new Zip files won't overwrite existing Zip files)
• How you want file attributes and dates to be used when evaluating which files should be zipped, and whether existing Zip files should be replaced or updated (For those familiar with standard backup programs, these options combine to specify backup types such as Normal, Incremental, Differential, etc.)
• Whether you want to encrypt files when they are zipped
• What folder information should be stored in the Zip file
• Whether the job should be scheduled to run automatically and, if so, when
• Whether the Zip file created should be sent to a remote location via FTP
• Whether the Zip file and/or log file should be emailed upon job completion

The Job Wizard allows you to set many other options, yet it is very easy to use. For example, the only thing that it requires you to specify is which files you want to zip; the Wizard will supply reasonable values for all the remaining settings. Click here for other articles in the WinZip Jobs section of the knowledgebase.