INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES Archiving in Microsoft Outlook This document looks at archiving and saving space in the Microsoft Outlook email program. AUTHOR: ISS DATE: December 2005 EDITION: 2.0 TUT 104 25p UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Contents Contents 1 1. Archiving and Saving Space Issues 1 1.1 Why is it important to save space? 1 2. View the Size of Outlook Folders 2 3. Empty the Deleted Items Folder 4 3.1 Turn on or off automatic emptying of the deleted items folder 4 3.2 Recover previously deleted items 4 4. Attachments 6 4.1 Find messages with large attachments 6 4.2 Save a File Attachment 7 4.3 Remove a File Attachment from a Plain Text Message 8 4.4 Remove a File Attachment from an HTML or Rich Text Formatted Message 9 5. AutoArchive 10 5.1 Delete or move old items with AutoArchive 10 6. Manual Archiving 13 6.1 Archive items manually 13 7. Retrieving Archived Items 14 7.1 Open a personal folder file 14 7.2 Displaying archive folders 15 Format Conventions In this document the following format conventions are used: Commands that you must type in are shown WIN31 in bold Courier font. Menu items are given in a Bold, Arial font. Windows Applications Feedback If you notice any mistakes in this document please contact the Information Officer. Email should be sent to the address info-officer@leeds.ac.uk Copyright This document is copyright University of Leeds. Permission to use material in this document should be obtained from the Information Officer (email should be sent to the address info-officer@leeds.ac.uk) Print Record This document was printed on 25-Nov-05. 1
1. Archiving and Saving Space Issues 1.1 Why is it important to save space? There is a size limit set by your Administrator on your Outlook Mailbox (100mb) If you exceed this limit you will not be able to receive email messages or save items on the Exchange server. It makes sense therefore to keep the size of your Outlook Mailbox down. Mailbox: The location on the Microsoft Exchange Server where your email messages are delivered. Your administrator sets up a mailbox for each user. Your Mailbox also holds all your other Outlook folders (eg Calendar, Tasks, Journal, Notes etc) 1
2. View the Size of Outlook Folders You can view the size of an individual Outlook folder to help determine which folders to manage. Right-click the folder you want to determine the size for, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu. Click Folder Size. 2
You can view the size of all your Outlook folders at once. Select Mailbox Cleanup from the Tools menu. Click the View Mailbox Size button. 3
3. Empty the Deleted Items Folder When you delete an item it goes into the Deleted Items folder. If you hold down the Shift key on the keyboard whilst deleting items they will be permanently deleted. In the Folder List, right-click the Deleted Items folder, and then click Empty Deleted Items Folder on the shortcut menu. 3.1 Turn on or off automatic emptying of the deleted items folder You can automatically empty the Deleted Items folder when you close Microsoft Outlook. 1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab. 2. Select or clear the Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting check box. Note: To be notified before you empty the Deleted Items folder, click the Tools menu, click Options; click the Other tab, click Advanced Options, and then select or clear the Warn before permanently deleting items check box. 3.2 Recover previously deleted items If you have accidentally deleted an item, and then emptied your deleted items folder there is still one way to recover your message. All items that are removed from your deleted items folder are stored for a period of 30 days before being permanently removed from the server. These messages do not count towards your quota. To view the items that have been removed from the deleted items folder in your mailbox in the preceding 30 days do the following: 1. Click on your Deleted Items folder. 2. On the Tools menu, click Recover Deleted Items. 4
3. Select the items you wish to recover and then press the recover button. If you wish to select more than one item you can hold down the Ctrl button while you are clicking. 5
4. Attachments 4.1 Find messages with large attachments Click the paperclip icon on the column header and this will place all the emails with attachments either at the top or the bottom of the list and you can then review the size of each attachment. (You can bring in the size column header in the same way as for the attachment field.) If the paperclip icon is not available then follow the instructions below. 1. Right-click on a column heading in your inbox and select Field Chooser from the Shortcut menu. 2. Drag the Attachment bar from the Field Chooser box and place it on the column header 6
4.2 Save a File Attachment 1. Open the item that contains the file attachment you want to save. 2. Right-click the icon for the attachment, and then click Save As. 3. In the File name box, enter a name for the file, and in the Save as type list, click a file format. If the attachment is in HTML or Rich Text format the steps are the same as above but you should Right-click the attachment within the message window. 7
4.3 Remove a File Attachment from a Plain Text Message Once you have saved an attachment, you can remove this attachment from the message to save space in your mailbox. 1. Open the item that contains the file attachment you want to save. 2. Right-click the icon for the attachment, and then click Remove. 3. Close the message. You will be prompted to save the message which you should do. Note: If the item includes more than one attachment, you can hold down SHIFT and click any number of attachments to save or remove them. Tip: You can always choose the Edit Message function under Edit to make a note to yourself of where you have saved the attachment if you want to keep the email. 8
4.4 Remove a File Attachment from an HTML or Rich Text Formatted Message Once you have saved an attachment, you can remove this attachment from the message to save space in your mailbox. 1. Open the item that contains the file attachment you want to save. 2. From the Edit menu select Edit Message. 3. Right-click the attachment or object you wish to remove from within the message window, and then click Cut 9
5. AutoArchive 5.1 Delete or move old items with AutoArchive In the paper-based world, you occasionally shuffle through your documents and store those items that are important but not frequently used. You can quickly complete the same process in Outlook. AutoArchive is a two-step process. First, you turn on AutoArchive. 1. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Other tab, and then click AutoArchive. 2. Select Run AutoArchive every and set the frequency for AutoArchiving in days. 3. In the Default archive file area set the location to your M: drive (your home directory). Saving to the M: drive ensures that your archive files are backed up and can be restored if necessary. Enter the drive and then the filename with the extension.pst. See the example above. 4. Click OK. 10
Second, you set the AutoArchive properties for each folder that you want archived. If you do not set these properties, the folder will use the default as you set in step 1. 5. View the folder list and right-click on the folder you want to set AutoArchive properties for and choose Properties from the Shortcut menu. 6. Click the AutoArchive tab and select the Select Archive Folder Using These Settings box 7. Set an age limit for items in this folder. 11
TIP: Date used to archive items The date used to determine when an item will be archived depends on the type of item. Item type Email message Appointment Task Note Journal entry Contact Archive date The sent or received date, whichever is later; or the last modification date/time. The appointment date or the last modification date/time, whichever is later. The completion date or the last modification date/time. Tasks that are not marked complete are not AutoArchived. Tasks assigned to others are archived only if marked complete. The last modification date/time. The date the journal entry was created or the last modification date/time. Not archived. 8. Check the location that the personal folder file (the archive.pst file) will be stored on your M drive. 9. Click Apply and then OK. You have now set up AutoArchive and if an AutoArchive is overdue the following message will be displayed. If you want the AutoArchive procedure to go ahead immediately (it only takes a few moments) click Yes, if you would rather do it later click No and you will be prompted with this message next time you open Outlook. 12
6. Manual Archiving You can override AutoArchive and manually archive specific folders at any time. 6.1 Archive items manually 1. On the File menu, click Archive. 2. To archive one folder only, click Archive this folder and all subfolders, and then click the folder that contains the items you want to archive. 3. In the Archive file box, type a file name for the archived items to be transferred to, or click Browse to select from a list. 4. In the Archive items older than box, enter a date. Items dated before this date will be archived. TIP: Outlook can archive all types of items, but it can only locate files that are stored in an email folder, such as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or Word document attached to an email message. A file that is not stored in an email folder cannot be archived. 13
7. Retrieving Archived Items You can retrieve items from an archive file either by importing the archive file or by opening the archive file. If you import the archive file, you move all the archived items back into your mailbox, into the folders from which they were archived. You can also choose to import the archived items into a new folder. If you open the archive folder, it is added to your folder list, and you can manually copy items into the appropriate folders. 7.1 Open a personal folder file On the File menu, point to Open, and then click Outlook Data File. Click the.pst file you want to open. The.pst file is added to your Folder List. For example, if you opened your AutoArchive folder file, it appears in the file list as a folder with the name AutoArchive. 14
7.2 Displaying archive folders To display the Archived folders in your folder list, you need to do the following. On the Tools menu, point to Options. Select the Other tab then click on the button. Make sure the Show archive folder in folder list is selected. Archive folders will appear in the folder list from the next time you log in to Outlook. 15