Microsoft CRM Customizations Zip File

If you have spent any time exporting customizations from Microsoft CRM 4.0, you have probably noticed that the customizations xml file is now exported in a zip format. This presents several advantages:

1. It speeds up the time of the customization export.
2. It simplifies emailing a customization file to somebody else, as Outlook does not support emailing of XML files.

But, did you know that you can also import customizations in zip format? I was under the impression that you had to extract the customization file before you imported it, but by accident I discovered that you can actually import a zipped customization file.

I've found that it seems to take a little bit longer to import a zipped customization file than an unzipped xml, but it is nice to save a step.