I have seen these mentioned on download websites,but what exactly is a Zip file,& what does it do?

Aidan.

It's an archive, which means it's contents is compressed to save bandwith and space when hosting/downloading files.

But really..next time you should use google for such questions since this has 0 to do with programming ;)

I have seen these mentioned on download websites,but what exactly is a Zip file,& what does it do?

Aidan.
.zip files are an archive of one or more compressed files.

Contrast this to .tar files, which are just archives, and .gz files, which are just compressed. Typically, these files are used on Linux/Unix/Solaris machines (people, correct me if I'm wrong). You can combine them into a .tar.gz file, but with a .zip, it can call be done in one step.

Keep in mind also: When it comes to compressed files and folders, there are more than just .zip files. There are many types, ranging from .ace to .rar to .zip, and many in between. I would recommend winRAR (http://www.rarlabs.com) to unzip any, if not all types of compressed files (assuming you are using windows).

:cool:

How do you unzip a Zip file after you have downloaded the template off the Internet & onto your computer?

Aidan.

winRAR, as was suggested earlier, can decompress and extract zip archives, as can 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org).