Disclosed is an apparatus for compacting an intraocular lens. The apparatuscomprises a lens compactor having a first configuration for retaining theintraocular lens in an unstressed condition and a second configuration inwhich the compactor stresses the lens into an at least partially compactedcondition without advancing the lens along an injection axis of the compactor.The compactor accomplishes this by applying a compacting force in a directiongenerally orthogonal to the optical axis of the lens. The compactor isresponsive to a compactor actuator that is movable by a user to change thecompactor from the first configuration to the second configuration. Additionalapparatus and methods are disclosed as well.