data/sessions/explorer-zip-selection/memory.md

Memory: explorer-zip-selection

Overview

Compress a folder into a zip archive beside it, through the file manager's context menu. Use this when a folder has to be packaged for sending or storing and the work is being done by pointing. The route right-clicks the folder and follows the send-to submenu to the compressed-folder command, which creates the archive in the same place and names it after the folder. The recorded trace produces docs.zip from the docs folder.

Prerequisites

• A desktop environment with a file manager that can create archives, or a shell with an archiving tool.
• A folder or set of files to archive, existing and readable.
• Write access to the location where the archive is written, and enough free space for it.
• A decision about the archive's internal structure before starting: archiving a folder puts its name at the root of the archive, while archiving the folder's contents puts the files at the root. Both are reasonable and they produce different archives from the same source.
• The archive's name and location decided in advance. Tools that name the archive automatically derive it from the selection, which is not always the intended name.
• No existing archive at that path, or agreement that it may be replaced.

Steps

Step 1 — Left-click at (212, 155)

The task is to produce docs.zip alongside the docs folder, so the folder itself has to be the compression target. Move the cursor and Left-click docs, the second row in corpus-seed, to select it. The archive takes its name from whatever is selected, which is why selecting the folder — rather than opening it and selecting its contents — is what yields docs.zip.

Step 2 — Right-click at (212, 155)

Move the cursor and Right-click the same row to open the context menu on the selected folder. The zip command is not on the ribbon in Windows 10; the context menu is the route.

Step 3 — Left-click at (280, 515)

Windows 10 offers no direct "Compress to ZIP file" item, so the archive is created through Send to ›. Move the cursor and Left-click it. Note that this is the folder context menu, which is considerably longer than the file menu used in the other Explorer takes — the same command sits at a different height depending on what was right-clicked.

Step 4 — Left-click at (600, 539)

The submenu opened on hover. Move the cursor and Left-click Compressed (zipped) folder. Windows creates docs.zip next to docs in corpus-seed, containing the folder and its three files at docs/a.txt, docs/b.txt, docs/c.txt.

Notes & Edge Cases

• A submenu opens on hover, and clicking its parent row can close the whole menu. Move onto the parent and wait for the child list to appear rather than clicking through it. This is the most common way a menu-driven step silently does nothing.
• Confirm the submenu is open before moving to the child item. The pointer has to travel from the parent row into the submenu without leaving the menu's bounds; cutting the corner closes it and the click then lands on whatever is behind.
• A parent row's position is not fixed. Menu contents differ by what was right-clicked and by what is installed, so the row sits at a different height in different folders. Read the row's label rather than returning to a remembered position.