Ubuntu :: Generate Compressed Files In Zip Format ?

I was trying to figure out how to generate compressed files in zip format and searched on here. The search produced a list of forum entries on the topic, but all of the instructions were on how to do it in terminal, how to download obscure programs and install them from terminal, then run them from terminal, with all these arcane sets of switches and parameters. Eesh.

It comes with Ubuntu, after all. In the case of zipping files, all you have to do is to go to the File Manager, find the file(s), select it or them, right-click on it or them, and select Compress and file type zip. It's so simple.

There have been a number of other tasks where I wind up spending hours figuring out how to implement the advice offered in these forums through Terminal. The folks who offer the advice often are so good at it that they leave out steps obvious to them, but that take a lot of work for somebody not as skilled at it to find out. After crawling through broken glass to get the job done, and normally screwing something up so it's not quite right once I get it going, I figure out how to do it through the GUI and find out it takes a fraction of the effort.