Simple TAR usage (TAR for dummies :))

to compress:
tar cvzf allfiles.tar.gz  ./name/name_of_folder
tar cvzf allfiles.tar.gz  ./name/name_of_folder/*
tar cvzf allfiles.tar.gz  *.doc

to preserve permissions:
tar cvzpf allfiles.tar.gz  ./name/name_of_folder

to decompress to current directory:
tar xvzpf allfiles.tar.gz

x - extract
c - create
v - verbose
z - gz library compression
f - compressed file name
p - preserve permssions