I am working with Windows XP and Office 2010. I am attempting to compress an excel file (.xlsx). I need to access the file directory structure, so the compressed file should give me the option to 'extract all' when I right click the file.

The instructions I'm following (from a book) say to append .zip to the end of the file name in the file properties window. The file name should then be 'file_name.xlsx.zip'. This, however, does not compress the file.
I've attempted a couple of other ways to compress the file with no luck.

Any suggestions?