The need to share files over the Internet is increasingly common, from photographs, presentations or budgets to audio or video files. Sometimes email clients such as Gmail or Outlook are not able to send files, either by weight or by format.

So in this article we will give you some tips to make your life a little easier in this regard.

Compress files

We will start at the beginning. When sending a document we are interested in weighing as little as possible so that both uploading and downloading the file are as fast and efficient as possible. For this we recommend compressing the files and we have several options to do it, we will tell you about three of the three most common.

1. WinZip

If we are using Windows, by default this operating system brings a tool to compress files called WinZip. To do this we only need to select the file or files that we want to compress within a Zip, right-click on any of them once selected and go to Send to > Compress in Zip folder. After compressing it we will have a .zip file ready to send.

2. WinRar

Just as there is WinZip that comes installed by default in Windows, we also have the option of downloading a third-party program called WinRar that offers us the same service. We will have some advantages with this program since its compression rate is better than WinZip (although worse than 7zip) and it is also compatible with many other file extensions. If you are interested you can download it here.

3. 7zip

The last recommended option would be to use another third party program called 7zip. As far as compression is concerned, this is the optimal option since it will provide us with the greatest reduction in file weight. On the down side, it doesn't have as much extension compatibility as WinRar does. You can download it here

Send files

Once we have our files well optimized and ready to send, we will find that some email clients such as Gmail do not accept certain file extensions, such as .rar for example, since they cannot verify their content. For this we will require some other online service to share files. From Digitalmakers we recommend three:

1. WeTransfer

The most recommended option would be to use WeTransfer, who allow us to send files of up to 2GB with the free version. We can do it through a generated link that we can share manually, or directly with an email sent from the website itself to which we can add the message we want.

2. Dropbox

Another typical tool is Dropbox, which will allow us to share not only files but entire folders. Ideal to share a lot of content at once and with the peace of mind that you will always be synchronized. 

3. Google Drive

Last but not least we recommend using Google Drive. Like the previous tool, it will allow us to be completely synchronized with the receiver of our files, and can also share entire folders with any type of document. 

We hope that these tools are useful to you and facilitate your day to day. As we always tell you, any questions or suggestions you have can be sent to us, from Digitalmakers we will be happy to help you.