Many of the bulletin board files are "zipped" to save space and download time.

Explanation: A zipped file is a file that has been compressed and most often has a file extension of ".ZIP". I zip the files on our system for two reasons. First, there are some documents that are huge. By zipping the file, it collapses the file to 1/3 of its former size, significantly reducing the amount of time that it takes to download the document.

Instructions: If you have an unzip program installed on your computer, you simply need to double click on your downloaded file and your unzip program will extract it.

Getting a free unzip utility: If you do not have a program to expand zipped files, here is a free program called FreeZip. Simply download to your hard drive, then doubleclick to install. It will install very quickly, and from that point forward, you will just need to right click on any .zip file, and select "unzip." The file will then unzip into the same directory the .zip file is saved to.

If you have questions or problems, don't hesitate to contact me at [email removed] or if you need help right away between 8am and 5pm MST M-F, you may call me at 303-917-7866.

Finally, if you want me to, I'd be happy to unzip files for you and email them to you.

Just in case you want to check them out, here are some other unzip utilities (although the one above should work just fine).

WinZip  -   PkZip  -  eZip
Zip-It For Mac   -   MacZip For Mac

How To: Simply click on the file you want, then choose, save or save to disk.  Save it to a folder on your hard drive.  Next, if you have a program like winzip installed, go to that file in your file manager and double click on it.  Your unzipping program should then go to work.

For more in-depth instructions, go to About.com's article about unzipping in their "Internet for Beginners" series. Click here to go to that article!