Compress & Extract

What it is. DockDuck compresses files into archives and extracts them again right from the file list. When to use it. Bundling a folder to send, or unpacking something you downloaded, without reaching for a separate archiving app. It’s all done with the archiving tools already in macOS, so there are no third-party dependencies.

Compressing

Select one or more items, right-click, and choose Compress to create a .zip next to them (named after the selection, or Archive.zip for several items). For another format, use Compress to and pick one:

• .zip: the default; opens anywhere.
• .7z: smaller, with strong compression.
• .tar.gz and .tar.xz: common for Unix/server payloads.

Extracting

Right-click an archive and choose Extract to unpack it into a folder beside it. DockDuck reads a wider set of formats than it writes (alongside the ones above it extracts .rar, .cpio, and more), so you can open most things you’ll come across.

Where to go next

• Selecting & opening: build the selection to compress.
• Transfers: large compress/extract jobs show progress.
• Copy, move & trash: manage the archives afterward.