It might seem a little complicated at first, but using WinZip to compress and decompress data files is actually very simple.

Most Windows-based computers use WinZip as the standard way of compressing files, so if you want to send or receive bulky e-mail attachments you really need to know how to use it.

It's especially useful for reducing the file size of a batch of photos that you want to send to family or friends by e-mail.

How it works?

Many people, and some webmail services, use WinZip to compress all files attached to e-mails, so being able to use WinZip will help avoid losing those large image or document files that clog up your inbox.

WinZip - open and ready to go

Zipping is the process of compressing one or more files into an archive - so they take up less space on a computer or in an e-mail.

The 'archive', or 'zip' file, holds the compressed files until they are 'extracted' by a programme like WinZip.

Compression works by storing data in a more efficient way until the information is 'extracted' and returned to its original form.

One benefit of this is that you save storage space on your computer. Also, when you compress attachments on e-mails, they won't take so long to arrive or clog up your inbox so you can't receive any other e-mails.