Using WinZip to E-Mail Zip Files

WinZip® includes two features that make it easy to e-mail compressed files to others via the Internet:

Like the Windows "Send To Mail Recipient" feature, these WinZip e-mail features use a protocol called Simple MAPI to "talk" to your e-mail program. MAPI, which is provided by your e-mail software and not by Windows itself, allows Windows and application programs to instruct your e-mail program to create new mail messages, add attachments, etc. WinZip's e-mail features require that you have a MAPI-compatible e-mail program installed and correctly configured (just as the Windows "Send to Mail Recipient" feature does).

Examples of MAPI-compatible e-mail programs are Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and AOL 7.0 and 8.0.

AOL versions 4.0 - 6.0 do not support Simple MAPI. Therefore, neither Windows' Send To Mail Recipient nor WinZip's e-mail features can be used with these AOL versions.

Compressing attachments from within your e-mail program

There is another technique you can use to compress attachments while composing messages in your e-mail program. This technique does not require that your e-mail program support the MAPI interface that WinZip uses for the above features; it works with most e-mail programs that use the standard Windows "Open File" dialog to attach files. Here is the technique:

  1. In your e-mail program, open the dialog that you normally use to attach files to your e-mail messages.
  2. Using the standard Open File dialog box, locate the file or folder that you wish to attach.
  3. Position the mouse pointer over the file or folder name in the dialog, then click the right mouse button and choose Add to filename.zip from the WinZip shortcut menu (note: the filename shown in the menu entry will be the name of the file you selected). This will create a Zip file called "filename.zip".
  4. Still in the Open File dialog, click once on filename.zip (the Zip file created in the previous step). This file will normally be at the end of the current directory listing.
  5. Click the appropriate button to attach the Zip file (this is typically labeled Open, Attach, or Insert).

Note: this technique has been tested with current versions of the most popular e-mail programs (such as Outlook and Eudora). We cannot promise that it will work with all e-mail programs or with future versions of the programs we have tested.

Related topic

Why aren't WinZip's e-mail features working for me?