Introduction to Geographic Information Systems in Forest Resources
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Creating Zip Files

You will need to create zip files from your PDFs before they get turned in with Catalyst E-submit.

You may want to use WinZip or other software (such as JZip or WinRAR).

 

Also, an executable for zipping your files is available on the course CD. The rest of this page shows how to use the zip and unzip executables

Zipping with free software
Unzipping with free software

NOTE: Use proper naming convention of your files - the following steps are for guidance only.

Zipping files

  1. Your PDF file should be stored on your removable drive.



  2. Open a Command Prompt (also known as a DOS prompt). On most machines the Command Prompt will be within the Accessories under Programs on the Start Menu.





  3. Change drives to your removable drive. In this case, the removable drive is D:, so the command to change drives is simply

    D:



  4. Issue the command to zip your file. In this case, my CD is on drive E, which is where the zip.exe file is located. In order to run the executable, explicitly use the full pathname to the executable:

    e:\unix\zip assn1.zip assn1.pdf

     The command creates a file called assn1.zip from the assn1.pdf file. In essence, the command is saying:

        "find the zip command found in the directory unix on the CD, and use it to zip the assn1.pdf file into the file assn1.zip"



    You will see the zip command report how much the file was compressed.

  5. Now when you view the contents of your removable drive, you will see the new file:


Unzipping files

  1. Unzipping files is done in almost the reverse order. Assume you have downloaded your corrected assignment (in this case, the example assignment is called phurvitz_1.zip).



  2. Use the command prompt in the same way to change drives and/or directories:



  3. Now issue the unzip command:



    You will see the response from the zip command showing that the file has been uncompressed.

  4. Now the contents of the Windows Explorer shows the original zip file as well as the unzipped PDF file:



  5. You can open the PDF file in Acrobat Reader now.

 

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Contact Us CFR 520 Lab Locations Software Collect It Page
 

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