Compress & Extract

Zip a selection or unpack an archive in place — built entirely on macOS's own tools, with no extra apps to install.

Updated June 28, 2026 · Suggest an edit

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.

Note

.rar is extract-only: macOS’s tooling can read RAR archives but not create them, so RAR doesn’t appear under Compress to.

Where to go next

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