Archiving with WinRar

• Arhiving with Winrar::
  
  •  First, you need to run WinRAR. Double-click or press Enter on the WinRAR icon. You can also start it from the Windows "Start menu": enter "Programs" then "WinRAR" and then run the "WinRAR" item.
    
    
  •  When WinRAR is running, it displays a list of files and folders in the current folder. You need to go to the folder, which contains files to archive. You may use Ctrl+D, the disks list below the toolbar or click on the small disk icon in the bottom left corner, to change the current disk. Press BS, Ctrl+PgUp, small "Up" button below the toolbar or double-click on the folder named ".." to go to the parent folder. Press Enter, Ctrl+PgDn or double-click on any other folder to enter that folder. Ctrl+\ will set the root disk folder as the current folder.
    
    
  •  When you have entered the folder with the desired files, select the files and folders, which you are going to archive. This may be achieved by using Shift + arrow keys or the mouse as in Windows Explorer and other Windows programs. It is also possible, in WinRAR, to select files using Space or Ins keys. "Gray +" and "Gray -" keys on the numeric keypad allow the selection of groups of files using file masks.
    
    
  •  Having selected one or more files, click on the Add button at the top of the WinRAR window, press Alt+A or select the "Add files to archive" command in the Commands menu. Enter the destination archive name in the dialog box which appears or simply accept the default name. You may select, in this dialog, the format of the new archive (RAR or ZIP), compression level, volume size and other archiving parameters. This dialog described in details in Archive name and parameters dialog topic. Click on the OK button when you are ready to create the archive.
    
    
  •  During the archiving process, a window will be displayed showing operation statistics. If you wish to break the archiving process, click on the Cancel button in the command window. You may press the "Background" button in this window to minimize WinRAR to the tray. When archiving is completed, the command window disappears and the newly created archive becomes the currently selected file.
    It is also possible to add files, to an existing RAR archive, using drag-and-drop. Select the desired archive in the WinRAR window and press Enter (or double click) on its name. RAR will read the archive and display its contents. You may now add files to the archive by simply dragging them from another program and dropping to WinRAR.
    
  
  
  
•  Archiving files from the command line
  
  •  The common command line syntax for archiving files is:
    WINRAR A [ -switches ] [ Files ] [ @File lists ]
    For example, if you wish add the file LETTER.TXT to the archive LETTERS.RAR, type:
    WINRAR A LETTERS.RAR LETTER.TXT
    
    
  •  If an archive extension is not specified, WinRAR will use the default archive format selected in the default compression profile, but you may override it by specifying either .RAR or .ZIP extension.
    
    
  •  The next example: add all *.WAV files to the solid RAR archive Songs:
    WINRAR A -S Songs.RAR *.WAV
    
    
  •  Also it is possible to list the files to be archived in a file, rather than listing them on the command line. In this case the name of the file, containing the list of files to be archived, must be given on the command line. This is indicated by placing the symbol @ before this file name. Thus, if you create a file, Binaries, containing the strings *.exe and *.com, then execute the command:
    
    WINRAR A TOOLS.ZIP @Binaries
    all files with .EXE and .COM extensions from the current folder will be added to the ZIP archive TOOLS.
    
  •  During the archiving process, a window, containing statistics, will be displayed. If you wish to break the archiving process, click on the Cancel button in the command window. You may press the "Background" button in this window to minimize WinRAR to the tray. If archiving is completed, without problems, WinRAR will terminate. In case of an error, a Diagnostic message window will be displayed.
    
  
  
  
•  Archiving files in Explorer or Desktop::
  
  •  If you did not disable the "Integrate WinRAR into shell" option when installing WinRAR, it is possible to archive files directly in a Windows shell. Select the files you are going to compress, in Explorer or Desktop, press the right mouse button on the selected files and choose "Add to archive…". Enter the destination archive name in the dialog box which appears or accept the default name. You may also select the format of the new archive (RAR or ZIP), compression level, volume size and other archiving parameters. This dialog is described in detail in the Archive name and parameters dialog topic. Click on the OK button when done. An archive will be created in the same folder as the selected files.
    
    
  •  You may also select the "Add to archive" command to add to the proposed archive without additional requests. In this case compression settings selected in the default compression profile will be used.
    

•  Note that if the option "Cascaded context menus" in Integration settings dialog is switched on, you need to open "WinRAR" submenu to access to described above commands. Otherwise they are resided in the top level menu.
  Another method is to drag file icons to an existing archive icon and drop them. Files will be added to this archive.