Adding Files to an Archive

New users: for introductory information, please see the section Brief Tutorial - Adding Files to a WinZip® File.

There are other ways to add files to an archive:

• The drag and drop interface.
• The Explorer interface.

Adding files using the WinZip Ribbon interface

Setting the zipping options

Set any or all of the following options that WinZip will use when adding files:

• In the Zip tab:
  • Make your selection to create either a Zip file or a Zipx file.  Please see Choosing a Compression Method for additional information on the compression methods used in WinZip.
  • Under Zip Method and Zipx Method you may change the compression method used by WinZip for either of them or both of them.
  • The Filters dropdown menu allows you to set filters to include or exclude certain files based on wildcards and other user-specified patterns or options.
    • Click Default filter if you do not wish to use a custom filter when adding files.
    • Click an existing filter to use it when adding files.
    • Click Add a Filter to open the Filter window where you can add or remove include and exclude patterns that are used to include or exclude files with names that match the respective patterns.
    • Click Edit Filters to edit an existing filter.
    • Click Remove Filters to delete an existing filter.
    • When adding or editing filters, the Options tab includes
      • Full path information: setting this option will include the full path information from the root location during the Add operation.
      • Hidden/system files: setting this option causes WinZip to add files with the system and hidden attributes. Normally files with these attributes are not included.
      • Unarchived files only: setting this option excludes files whose archive attribute is not enabled. The Archive attribute on a file is automatically enabeled whenever you modify a file.
      • Reset archive bit of added files: setting this option turns off the archive attribute of any file that is added to the Zip file.
  • Settings in the Modify Files When Adding to Zip group:
    • Enable Encrypt if you want to encrypt files as they are added to the WinZip file.
    • Enable Image Conversions if you want to reduce the size of images as they are added, remove personal information from files being added, convert these files to another type, and/or add a watermark image to them.
    • Enable PDF Conversions to files from PDF files to their original type, convert document files to a PDF, combine all files being added to one PDF file, sign your PDFs with a digital signature, and/or add a watermark image to them.

Adding files

Once you have configured the desired options, you can add files by clicking the Files and Folders button. WinZip will open a file selection dialog that you can use to select the files or folders you want to add to your WinZip file. To add files from the cloud, simply select the desired cloud storage provider and provide login information if necessary, then find and select the desired files as usual.

Once you have selected the files and folders to add, click the Add  button to begin the zipping process. Alternatively, you can click on the dropdown arrow to the right of the Add button to select one of the other zipping operation:

• Add (and replace) files: adds all specified files to the archive.
• Freshen existing files: updates files already in the archive that match the specified files. No new files are added.
• Move (and replace) files: the same as Add except that files are deleted from disk or moved to the Recycle Bin after they have been added.
• Update (and add) files: works the same as Freshen, but adds any specified files that are not already in the archive.

Compatibility note

WinZip supports the following extensions to the Zip file format:

• 128- and 256-bit key AES encryption: AES encryption provides much greater cryptographic security than the traditional Zip 2.0 encryption method used in earlier versions of WinZip.
• Enhanced deflate: this improved compression method is not part of the Zip 2.0 format, but it provides greater compression and reduces the size of your Zip files.
• 64-bit extensions: using the extended format, the member file size, Zip file size, and number of member files you can add to a Zip file are limited only by your system's resources. WinZip uses the 64-bit extended format only when the limits of the original format are exceeded. (The original Zip file format limited the number of member files in a Zip file to 65,535 and the maximum size of both the Zip file itself and any member file to 4 gigabytes.)
• PPMd compressed files in Zip file format (WinZip 10.0 or later)
• bzip2 compressed files in Zip file format (WinZip 10.0 or later)
• WavPack compressed files in Zip file format (using Best method in WinZip 11.0 or later)
• Jpeg compressed files in Zip file format (using Best method in WinZip 12.0 or later)
• LZMA compressed files in Zip file format (WinZip 12.0 or later)
• XZ compressed files in Zip file format (WinZip 18.0 or later)
• MP3 compressed files in Zip file format (WinZip 21.0 or later)
• Zstd compressed files in Zip file format (WinZip 24.0 or later)

Beginning with WinZip 12.1, in order to better help users differentiate between Zip files created using legacy Zip 2.0 compatible compression methods and those Zip files created using the advanced compression methods listed above (such as PPMd, bzip2, WavPack, Jpeg compression, LZMA, XZ, and MP3 compression), Zip files created using legacy Zip 2.0 compatible compression methods will have the file extension .zip and Zip files that were created using the advanced compression methods will have the file extension .zipx. Most Zip utilities should be able to extract from the .zip files created by WinZip 12.1 or later; however, .zipx files are not compatible with earlier versions of WinZip and may not be compatible with other Zip utilities. Please see Choosing a Compression Method for additional information on the compression methods used in WinZip.

WinZip remains fully compatible with the original Zip 2.0 file format and uses the original format whenever possible when using Zip 2.0 Legacy compression methods.