7-zip is a free and open source utility used to
compress files into archives. This can also be referred to as
”zipping” (or compressing) files/folders into a particular
format (such as a zip file). These files/folders can then later
also be “unzipped” (or uncompressed).
You can download a copy of the 7-Zip program from
the following link at http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
To start your copy of 7-zip file manager, press the
Windows key, then go to the all apps/ programs section on your
computer. The name of this section will depend on your operating
system. 7-zip will show up under this section.
When you first open up 7-zip file manager, you will
be presented with some drive letters that are on your computer.
This will depend on which drives are connected to your
computer/laptop. For example C: drive, D: drive and so on. You
can arrow down or up this section to pick a drive. To go into
any of the drives you can press the Enter key and you will be
taken inside that drive. When you are inside the drive, you will
be given a list of folders/ files that you can navigate through
with the down or up arrow keys. Press the Enter key again on a
folder and you will be taken within that folder again. This
cannot be done to a file.
To go back out of each folder, you can use the
Backspace key or do it through the View/Up One Level Backspace
menu.
You will also notice that there is an old style
menu that goes from left to right and when activated with the
Alt key, a submenu will drop down for each section. It is a
matter of using the left and right arrow keys to navigate the
main menus and the down or up arrow keys to navigate the
submenus.
In most cases, you will either be zipping up files
- to compress space on your hard drive, or to move them to
another drive. This may even be via email. There may be cases
where you want to send them to a friend. Think of the zip file
like a briefcase - where
all of the files are put into it that you want to send - then
zipped up to send them. When it gets to the other end, they will
unzip the file and see the contents that you have sent to them.
This could be photos, documents and so on.
You can either zip up a bunch of files or you can
zip up a whole folder. This will depend on what you want to do
with them.
If you want to zip up a whole folder and send it
via email, the easiest way (within the 7-zip file manager) is to
locate the folder you want to send. Next, if your keyboard has
it, press the applications key until the context menu comes up.
Next, arrow until you hear NVDA say 7-zip submenu. Use the right
arrow key to open this submenu, then arrow down to the options
that you want. The folder name when zipped will be given the
name of the original folder, but in whatever zip format you
choose). In most cases you will zip the folder/files into a zip
file, then email them. The file name will be the name of the
folder when you go to email it. For example Compress to "Van
Morrison Payin' Dues.zip" and email. When you see the menu as
above, press the Enter key then your email client will come up
and attach the zip file for you. Then, it is a matter of just
entering in the email address to the person who you want to send
it to and the subject line, then sending it.
You do not have to email it every time. There is an
option there as well just to zip the folder into a zip file.
Using the applications key to get to this menu, (while on the
folder in 7-zip file manager), choose the option (for example)
called add to "Van Morrison Payin' Dues.zip".
The name of your zip file will be different to the
one mentioned above.
If there is no application key on your keyboard,
you can also use the Shift + F10 key to bring up the context
menu.
If you do not want to send a whole folder to
someone, you can also send them certain files within that folder
or place that you are looking in. If this is the case, you can
use the Shift key + the up or down, left or right arrow keys to
select the files you want.
Then, it is a matter of zipping the files (either
to send via the email function or just zipping them to back them
up and moving them onto a removable drive.
In most cases, you would put your zipped file onto
your desktop, so that it is easier to find after it has been
emailed to you. Locate the zip file that was sent to you, then
press the Enter key on it. If there is already the 7-zip file
manager program on your computer/laptop, when you press the
Enter key on the zip file, it may show the following. (For
example the name of the folder that was sent to you - usually
the file name). Select the file name folder, then press the
Enter key on it. You will now see the contents of the zip file.
From here, you can select all of the files, then
copy them to another location if you want to. You can also use
the Applications key to open the zip file. When the context menu
comes up, you will be given different options. The first option
will be to open the file to see the contents of the zip file.
The second will be to extract all to a location. This will
usually be where the file is at that time (for example on the
desktop and it will make a folder off that called the file name
.7zip or whatever extension is used).
You can tab around, and if you want to, change the
location under the browse button section; or simply just tab to
the extract button then press the Enter key. Now you will notice
there is a folder on your desktop with the zip file name.
There will be both the zip file and now a folder
with the zip file name (for example "Van Morrison Payin' Dues ".
folder and "Van Morrison Payin' Dues.zip"..zip).