Need Help!! Outlook 2003

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EnigMario

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I would apppreciate if anyone can help me with an
outlook situation. I got 1 Gig of e-mail's stored in
my computer from the previous 5 years. They are
all extremely important. I was wondering what would
be the best and safe way to burn the e-mail's on cd's
and later open them with no problem? What format should
I save them as? If and how can i save them in PDF?

The reason for this question is because someone told me
that future versions might not read them well.
Please Help!! Thanks.
 
1 gig in emails huh? And they are all extremely important eh? Sorry, it sounds like you entirly missed a few points behind GTD. To illustrate my point, select five emails from five years ago that you feel you can't live without. Now read them again. Are you going to need to refer to any of those five emails next year? Two years from now? If the answer is an honest yes, then save them. If you have to think about the answer, then the answer is no. Toss them.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. But the next thing that has me curious, is... in these five years have you backed up these files? Or are you working with five years worth of files with no back up? Never archived or exported? If you have and you are familiar with this process, then that's the format that they should be saved in.

What you should do for all of this email is Archive and/or Export it all right there within Outlook. Export the Personal Folder File (.pst) file. It'll be saved for future use. Then copy that saved file to your media of choice, CD, Flashdrive, etc.

Outlook, your original question. Do you think that turning five years worth of email into PDF files is good use of your time? Or anybody elses time for that matter? What you may have heard was that MS Office plans to eventually turn their core document technology to XML format. However, MS Office will always have backward compatibility or at the very least a tool for reading old files for backward compatibility. So I don't plan on worrying about it, it's a moot issue in that MS has always supported backward compatibility.

Hope this helps,
 
I completely disagree. This is 2005; there's not a shade of a reason to ever delete or classify any files ever again. Get yourself Google Desktop Search (or the MSN Search Toolbar with desktop search), and just google your emails. I don't have subfolders or such things anymore, I just throw everything somewhere and google it when I need it.

Storage is cheap. Search works. Don't waste your time with deleting or classifying stuff on your PC.
 
David Hoeffer said:
I completely disagree. This is 2005; there's not a shade of a reason to ever delete or classify any files ever again. Get yourself Google Desktop Search (or the MSN Search Toolbar with desktop search), and just google your emails. I don't have subfolders or such things anymore, I just throw everything somewhere and google it when I need it.

Storage is cheap. Search works. Don't waste your time with deleting or classifying stuff on your PC.

I agree with you 100% and this is how operate also, to a degree.

But in EnigMario's case... he's not at that stage yet is he? So until he learns our method of madness he needs a process that makes him feel secure and comfortable in his world.
 
I appreciate your comments, they're very helpful.
now, after I archive my a-mail's, how do I go about's
saving them on to a CD? do I use the Export/Import
method, or is there an easier way?

The reason why I'm so concerned about these e-mail's
is because they're Architect related. Also I found that Yahoo/MSN
Toolbar interesting, how can I also go about's doing that?
 
EnigMario said:
I appreciate your comments, they're very helpful.
now, after I archive my a-mail's, how do I go about's
saving them on to a CD? do I use the Export/Import
method, or is there an easier way?

The reason why I'm so concerned about these e-mail's
is because they're Architect related. Also I found that Yahoo/MSN
Toolbar interesting, how can I also go about's doing that?

Export your .pst file to a folder you create somewhere on your hardrive like "Email Backup." Then do what ever your CD burning software needs to copy that folder to the CD.

Your concern about the emails is unfounded. The fact they are arcitect based is irrelevant. YOU are one the one who places the importantce of these files. Not the profession. If they are files that your government states you have to keep for 5-7 years, then what you should have been doing all along is printing out the important emails and having them stored in a safe place not in the same building as where you work.

Can I safely assume that while you use a PC (computer) at work, you would not consider yourself computer savvy?
 
Here's another suggestion: Instead of CD's do consider getting a portable harddisk. Saves you from having to carry multiple CDs around for your large PST file. They are not that expensive, mine has a 80GB capacity and I use it to sync the data of 3 computers in my office. Secondly, instead of using Outlook's Export procedures, which can be cumbersome, consider getting a synching software. I personally use Allway sync, which I find to be very stable. Point to your data .pst file in the software and sync it with a folder you have created in your portable harddisk. You can sync your data regularly this way. Hope this helps. Regards

Jogesh
 
Multiple .PST Files

I've had decent success by creating additional .pst files (File/New/Outlook Data File) and separating certain sets of messages (e.g. a given time period, a given subject area) into them (moving batches messages from time to time or filing there directly.) You can also have multiple .pst files open at once. Anytime you want, you can close a particular .pst file which "disconnects" it from Outlook, leaving you free to archive it however you want: corporate file server, external drive, etc.

By having a larger number of smaller physical files, you have more flexibility in terms of storage management.
 
Backup pst files

Microsoft has an Outlook plug-in that backs up your pst files into a location that you can define. You can even choose which pst files you want to back up and how often it reminds you.

What it does is offer to make a copy of the pst file to the backup location when you exit Outlook (depending on how often you tell it to remind you). From there, I guess you can burn the copy once in a while onto a CD, or drag it to an external disk.

1GB may take a long time to replicate each time. If you archive the mail in separate pst according to year, only 2005 will be active and need active backing up, saving you time.

The plug-in is backward compatible to OL2000. Find it here
 
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