The Thunar Archive Plugin allows you to create and extract archive files using the file context menus in the Thunar file manager. For example, to create a new archive, select the files and folders you want to add to the archive, right-click on one of the selected files and select Create Archive... from the context menu. This will open the dialog shown below which allows you to specify the filename and type, target location and Other Options (if supported by the selected file type).