Guide to Outlook 2010: Archiving email http://www.lse.ac.uk/imt Contents > Creating an Archive file, Working with archived mail, Archiving email using drag and drop, Delete Archived Mail Messages, Compact your Archive File, Creating a new archive file, Opening an archive file Introduction By default, when you use Outlook at LSE, you are reading and managing messages which are held in a storage area known as your Mailbox. It is good practice to regularly clean out your Mailbox to ensure that it remains manageable and below capacity (see Manage your mailbox quota). Deleting messages is one way of doing so; archiving messages which must be retained for legal purposes, or which you may need to reference at some time in the future. Therefore, you may wish to set up an archive on your H: space, allowing you to move indispensable messages from your Mailbox to an archive. You can work with archived email in exactly the same way you work with email in your Mailbox, the only difference is that the mail is stored in your H: space. Creating an Archive file In Outlook, if a folder named Archives does not exist below the list of folders in your Mailbox, you will need to create one. Archived email is held in a pst file. It is possible to create a pst file manually but it is recommended that you initially use the automatic archiving tool to simultaneously create a pst file on your H: space and move email of a specified age from your Mailbox. TO CREATE AN ARCHIVE FOLDER ON YOUR H: SPACE: 1. Click on the File tab. 2. Click on the Cleanup Tools button. 3. Click on Archive... The Archive dialog box will be displayed. London School of Economics and Political Science (25 February 2015)
NOTE: The Archive file is located on your H: space. 4. Click on the folder you want to archive. If you want to archive all of the folders in your Mailbox, click on the name of the Mailbox owner at the top of the list 5. Click on the drop-down arrow alongside Archive items older than: and select a date. All items older than the specified date will be moved from your Mailbox to an archive with an identical folder structure. 6. Click OK. Archiving will begin and, when complete, Archives will be displayed below the list of Mailbox folders. Working with archived mail Even though archived mail messages are stored in a different location to mailbox messages, you can still work with them in exactly the same way. 2
TO WORK WITH ARCHIVED MAIL MESSAGES: 1. Click on the arrow to the left of Archives (below the list of mailbox folders). All folders in your Archive will be displayed. 2. Work with archived mail messages in the same way you would with messages in your mailbox i.e. reply, forward or delete. Archiving email using drag and drop As well as using the automatic archiving tool to archive email (as detailed in the Creating an Archives file section) it is also possible to drag mail from the Mailbox and drop it into an Archives folder. TO ARCHIVE EMAIL USING DRAG AND DROP: 1. Select the message(s) in your Mailbox. 2. Drag and drop the message(s) into an Archives folder. Note: You can also archive entire subfolders, if you ve created them, using drag and drop. Delete Archived Mail Messages You should regularly check to see if you have unwanted archived messages, and delete those you don't need to keep as your H: space has a very limited capacity (see Managing your H: space). Delete a message from your Archives in the same way you would delete a message in your mailbox i.e. select it and press Delete on the keyboard. After deleting messages from a folder in your Archives they will be moved to the Deleted Items folder under Archives. Be sure to empty the Deleted Items folder periodically. TO PERMANENTLY REMOVE MESSAGES FROM THE DELETED ITEMS FOLDER: 1. Right-click on the Deleted Items folder to display the shortcut menu. 2. On the shortcut menu,click on Empty Folder. Compact your Archive File Deleting archived messages does not free up any space on your H: space. In order to reclaim the space, you must compact the archive file. TO COMPACT YOUR ARCHIVE FILE: 1. Right click on Archives below the list of Mailbox folders to display a shortcut menu. 2. Click on Data File Properties. The Archives Properties dialog box will be displayed. 3
3. Click on the Advanced button.the archives properties dialog box will be displayed. The Outlook Data File dialog box will be displayed 4. Click on the Compact Now button. The Compact Now dialog box will be displayed to confirm Compacting... 5. Click on the OK button to close the Outlook Data File dialog box 6. Click on the OK button to close the Archives Properties dialog box Creating a new archive file You can create as many archive files as you want, allowing you to organise your archived mail in a manner that suits you. For example, you may want to create an archive file for each year. TO CREATE A NEW ARCHIVE FILE: 1. Open Outlook and click on the File tab. 2. Click on the Account Settings button to display a menu. 4
3. Click on Account Settings... on the menu. The Account Settings dialog box is displayed. 4. Click on the Data Files tab. 5. Click on the Add... button. The Create or Open Outlook Data File dialog box will be displayed. 6. Ensure your H: space is highlighted in the list of folders before clicking in the File name: box and entering a file name for the new archive file i.e. Archive 2009. 7. Click OK to close the Create or Open Outlook Data File dialog box 8. Click Close to close the Account Settings dialog box The new archive file will be displayed below the list of Mailbox folders within Outlook. Opening an archive file You may have multiple archive files, or have recently migrated to a new computer and want to add them to your mailbox. TO OPEN AN ARCHIVE FILE: 1. Click on the File tab. 2. Click Open Open Outlook Data File. The Open Outlook Data File dialog box is displayed. 5
3. Find the folder where your archive files are saved 4. Choose your archive. Your archive files will be displayed below the list of Mailbox folders within Outlook. 6