Understanding Outlook files and folders
Outlook data files
Working with folders
Working with groups and items
Setting folder and file options
Using the search folders
Using Favorite folders
Using the Deleted Items folder
AutoArchiving Outlook items
Backing up Outlook data
Outlook stores all its data in one or more files on your hard disk (with the exception of certain Exchange account configurations). Within those files, some items are organized into folders. To use Outlook with maximum efficiency, you may want to know how to work with these folders and files.
You should be aware, however, that most users never need to be concerned with Outlook's files and folders—the default arrangement is just fine for their purposes. I recommend that you do not change Outlook's file and folder settings unless you have a real need to do so.
All computer users are familiar with the idea of a file. It's a unit of storage on a disk that contains data, such as a word processing document, a spreadsheet, or a digital photograph. Outlook uses files to store all its information, ranging from email account settings and user options to all its email messages, appointments, tasks, and other items. In fact, Outlook uses a single file called an Outlook Personal Folders file to store just about everything.
Most computer users are also familiar with the concept of a folder (sometimes called a directory). Folders are used to divide a hard disk into discrete storage areas—can you imagine the confusion if all your files were stored in the same location? Outlook uses folders, too, but they are not the same as disk folders. They serve the same purpose—to help organize the items stored—but they exist within the Outlook Personal Folders file and not as separate folders on your hard disk.
Outlook folders come in different types based on the kind of item they are designed to hold. For example, your Inbox is a folder and it is intended to hold email messages, but you cannot store a contact there.
For most Outlook users, program data and items are stored in an Outlook Personal Folders file. This is true if you are using a POP, IMAP, or HTML email account. The file has the .PST extension and is by default named OUTLOOK.PST. The folder on your hard disk where this file is normally kept is
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: X:Documents and SettingsuserLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook
Windows Vista: X: userLocal SettingsAppDataMicrosoftOutlook
Here, X is the drive letter, usually C, where the operating system stores user settings, and user is the name you have used to log on to Windows. If the computer is configured for more than one user, each will have their own separate and independent Outlook Personal Folders file.
You can have more than one Personal Folders file, but only one is designated as the default, which means Outlook uses it to store account settings, messages, and other items. Additional PST files are used for special purposes such as archiving old items. You cannot change the storage location of the default PST file.
Beginning with Outlook 2003 and continuing with the current version, Microsoft changed the internal format of PST files to allow for storage of more items and folders and to support multilingual Unicode data. This format is not compatible with Outlook versions 97 through 2002. If you install a new Outlook over one of these older versions, the old format PST file will be automatically converted to the new format. If, however, you want your PST file to be compatible with Outlook 2002 and earlier, you must create a PST file in the older format. This is explained later in this chapter in the section "Creating a New Personal Folders File."
If you use a Microsoft Exchange email account rather than, or in addition to, an IMAP, POP, or HTML account, you may have an Offline Folders file (which has the .OST extension). Normally, Exchange keeps copies of your messages and other items on the server, but you can configure Outlook to keep a local copy of the items on your system, in the Offline Folders file. Doing this allows you to work with your Outlook items when a connection to the Exchange server is not available. You can find more details on OST files in Chapter 28.
Outlook folders let you organize all the myriad items that you work with in Outlook. Outlook comes with a default set of folders that is a good starting point, but many users find these folders to not be enough. This section shows you how to create new folders and work with folders and folder items.
As I mentioned earlier, Outlook folders are designed to hold a specific type of item. The choices are
You cannot move an item into a folder of the wrong type, such as moving an email message into a contacts folder. The one exception to this rule is the Deleted Items folder, which can hold any type of item.
Note
Note that RSS feed items are treated like email messages by Outlook when it comes to folder types.
When installed, Outlook has a set of default folders located at the top level in your Personal Folders file. You cannot rename, move, or delete these default folders. They are
Calendar: Holds calendar items (appointments, and so on).
Contacts: Holds your contacts.
Deleted Items: Holds any and all items you have deleted before they are permanently deleted. See the section "Using the Deleted Items Folder" later in this chapter.
Drafts: Holds email messages you have started composing but not yet sent.
Inbox: Holds received emails.
Journal: Holds your journal items.
Junk E-mail: Holds email that has been flagged as junk (spam).
Notes: Holds your notes.
Outbox: Holds emails that you have sent but that have not yet been transferred to your email server.
Quarantine: Holds emails that have been flagged as containing a virus, worm, or other malicious element.
RSS Feeds: Holds content from your subscribed RSS feeds.
Sent Items: Holds copies of email messages you have sent.
Email folders get their own section because Outlook treats them a bit differently from other folders. To be more specific, you cannot organize email folders into groups, but rather have to organize them hierarchically when you create them.
When you create a new email folder, you can place it at the top level under Personal Folders—the same level as Outlook's default folders. You can also put it in an existing folder. You can put folders within folders to essentially any level and thereby organize your email messages in the way that best suits you.
Take a look at an example. Figure 18.1 shows Outlook's default email folders. You can see that they are all at the same level within Personal folders.
Suppose you want to organize emails from your clients by creating an email folder for each client. For this example, assume that you have three clients: Acme, Consolidated, and National. One approach would be to create three new folders at the top level. The resulting structure is shown in Figure 18.2.
Another approach, one that I prefer, is to use the capability to create folders within other folders, resulting in a hierarchy of folders structured according to the folder contents. This approach could be implemented by creating a Clients folder at the top level and then creating Acme, Consolidated, and National folders in the Clients folder. This structure is shown in Figure 18.3. Note that a folder that contains other folders—Clients in this case—displays an adjacent plus or minus icon that you can click to show or hide the subfolders.
In any event, you do not have to decide all the details of your email folder structure ahead of time because you can always move the folders around if needed.
Figure 18.3. New email folders can also be created in a hierarchical structure by placing folders within other folders.
Now you can get to the details of creating a new email folder. Here are the steps to follow:
If necessary, click the Mail button on the navigation pane to display the mail folders.
If you want the new folder at the top level, right-click Personal Folders (or whatever name you have assigned to the top level). Otherwise, right-click the folder that you want the new folder in.
Select New Folder from the context menu. Outlook displays the Create New Folder dialog box (see Figure 18.4). The location for the new folder is shaded in the folder display—Inbox in the figure, for example. You can, if necessary, change the location at this point.
Type the name of the new folder in the Name box.
Make sure that Mail and Post Items is selected in the Folder Contains list.
Click OK.
The new folder is created and you can start using it to store mail items.
Non-mail folders—those for tasks, calendar, journal, and contacts—are handled a bit differently than mail folders. Rather than organize folders by placing them in other folders, as you do with mail folders, you use groups. First, here are the steps to create a non-mail folder:
Click the appropriate button in the navigation pane corresponding to where you want to add a new folder—Calendar, Contacts, and so on.
Select Folder from the File menu, then select New Folder from the next menu. Outlook displays the Create New Folder dialog box (see Figure 18.5). The folder for the type of item you selected in step 1—Tasks in the figure, for example—will be highlighted in the folder list.
Enter the name of the new folder in the Name box.
Make sure that the Folder Contains list displays the appropriate type of item for the folder you are creating.
Click OK.
After you create a non-email folder, it is displayed near the top of the navigation pane along with other folders, including the default one, for that type of item. Figure 18.6 shows an example for Tasks after creating two new task folders called Work-related and Personal.
Outlook folders that are not email folders can be organized into groups. This is similar in concept to organizing email folders by their location in the folder hierarchy, but the procedures are a bit different.
By default, every category of non-email item has a single group with a name such as My Contacts, My Tasks, and so on. If you create new folders, they are displayed as part of this default group. For example, Figure 18.7 shows the contact folders after adding four new folders to the default Contacts folder. They are all part of the default My Contacts group (which can be expanded or collapsed using the adjacent arrow).
Figure 18.7. All folders for non-email items are initially part of the default group, My Contacts in this figure.
By creating new groups you can organize these folders as desired. In this example, there are five contact folders and you might want to arrange them as follows:
The Contacts folder, for miscellaneous contacts, remains in the My Contacts group.
The Personal Contacts and Family Contacts goes into a new group named Personal.
The Work Contacts and Freelance Contacts folders goes into a new group called Work.
The result of this reorganization (which you learn how to do in a moment) is shown in Figure 18.8. Now, you can expand and contract individual groups to find just the items you need.
To create a new group, right-click an existing group (for example, My Contacts in Figure 18.9) and select New Group from the context menu. Then, type in the name for the group and press Enter.
A newly created group is empty, as you might well expect. To move a folder to it, point at the folder, press and hold the left mouse button, and drag it to the destination folder. Figure 18.9 shows how you would move the Personal Contacts folder to the My Contacts group.
To create a new folder within a group, follow the procedures earlier in this chapter for creating a new folder, then move it to the desired group.
You can take the following actions with a group by right-clicking it and selecting from the context menu:
Rename the group.
Remove the group (and any folders it contains).
Arrange by Name—order the folders in the group alphabetically.
Move Up/Down in List—change the position of the group in the list.
Additional actions you can take with groups are covered in the next section.
This section covers the everyday tasks that you'll need to perform with your folders, groups, and Outlook items in order to keep them organized.
When you switch from one type of item to another—for example, from viewing mail items to viewing contact items—Outlook automatically displays the contents of one folder, usually the default one, in the main Outlook window. To view the contents of another folder (also called opening the folder):
Click the folder to display its contents in the main window.
Right-click the folder and select Open in New Window to view the folder's contents in a new window.
You can open as many new windows as you want. When you close a window, Outlook remains running as long as at least one window is open.
Outlook lets you move or copy items between folders. For some types of items, only moving is allowed, not copying. To move or copy one or more items, you must first select them:
To select a single item, click it.
To select multiple contiguous items, click the first item then hold down the Shift key and click the last item.
To select multiple non-contiguous items, click the first item then hold down the Ctrl key and click each additional item.
To select all items in the folder, press Ctrl+A. You can then deselect individual items with Shift+Click.
To deselect multiple items, release any key and click any non-selected item.
Now you can move/copy the selected items in one of several ways:
Drag the item or group of items to the destination folder and drop.
Select Cut (to move) or Copy from the Edit menu. Then, open the destination folder and select Paste from the Edit menu.
Select Move to Folder from the Edit menu. Outlook opens the Move Items dialog box, shown in Figure 18.10. Select the destination folder from the list and click OK. You can also click the New button in this dialog box to create a new folder.
As you fine-tune your Outlook organization, you may want to move folders to new locations. Depending on the type of folder, you may be able to copy a folder as well. Email folders can be moved to a new location in the folder hierarchy, and other folders can be moved from one group to another.
To move an email folder, point at it and drag it to the new location. For example, Figure 18.11 shows how you would move the National folder from its location in the Clients folder to a new location in the Work Stuff folder.
To move a non-email folder, point at it and drag it from the current group to the new group. Figure 18.12 shows how you would move the Freelance Contacts folder from the Work group to the My Contacts group.
You can also use the Copy (when allowed), Cut, and Paste commands on the Edit menu to copy and move folders.
To delete a folder, right-click it and select Delete XXXX (where XXXX is the name of the folder) from the context menu.
To rename a folder, right-click it and select Rename XXXX (where XXXX is the name of the folder) from the context menu, and then type in the new name and press Enter.
By default, Outlook has a single personal folders file called Personal Folders and with the filename Outlook.PST. In many cases, there will be a second personal folders file named Archive.PST used for archiving expired items (archiving is explained later in this chapter). You can also create additional personal folders files if you wish.
Why would you want to have more than one personal folders file? Here are a few reasons that people use multiple personal folder files:
For backup and archiving. You can create a second personal folders file and move items to it for backup. This reduces clutter in your main Personal Folders file while keeping the items in case you should need them at some future date.
For organization. You may want to keep all items for a large project in their own file and use the default file for all other items.
For transfer. If you use a desktop computer as well as a laptop, you can have your default PST file as well as a second one that is transferred between the two computers.
To create a new personal folders file:
Select New from the File menu, then select Outlook Data File. Outlook displays the dialog box shown in Figure 18.13 where you select the format of the file.
Most users should select Office Outlook Personal Folders File. Select Outlook 97–2002 Personal Folders File only if you need the new file to be compatible with these older versions of Outlook.
Click OK. Outlook displays the Create or Open Outlook Data File dialog box, shown in Figure 18.14.
The default location is the same folder where the default Personal Folders file is kept (as explained earlier in this chapter). You can accept this location or select another one.
Enter a descriptive name in the File Name box.
Click OK. Outlook displays the Create Microsoft Personal Folders dialog box (see Figure 18.15).
Enter the display name for the file in the Name box. This is not the filename but the name displayed in Outlook.
If you want to password-protect the file, enter the password in the Password and Verify Password boxes.
Select the Save This Password option if you want Outlook to remember your password so you do not have to enter it each time you open the file.
Click OK.
Warning
When you password-protect an Outlook data file, having Outlook remember your password may be convenient but it sort of defeats the purpose of password protection.
After you have created a new personal folders file, it is displayed in the navigation pane along with your Personal Folders file and archive file (if you have one) as shown in Figure 18.16. You can close the file by right-clicking it and selecting Close from the context menu. To open a personal folders file, select Open from the File menu, then select Outlook Data File from the next menu.
Each personal file folder has a few options, or properties, that you can change if desired. To access these properties, right-click the file in the navigation pane and select Properties from the context menu. Outlook will display the XXXX Properties dialog box as shown in Figure 18.17 (where XXXX is the name of the file). The items on the General tab are
Name: The display name of the personal folders file. You cannot change this here but must use the Advanced button as described later in this list.
Description: Enter an optional description for the file.
Show...: Select whether the folders in the file display the number of unread items or the total number of items in parentheses after the folder name.
When Posting to This Folder Use: Use this option to select a form that will be used as the default for postings to this folder.
Automatically Generate Microsoft Exchange Views: Select this option if you want Outlook to automatically create views of public folders that can be viewed by other Exchange users. Relevant for Exchange accounts only.
Folder Size: Click this button to view information about the overall size of the file and the size of each of its subfolders.
Upgrade to Color Categories: Click this button if you want to upgrade mutli-colored For Follow Up Flags and Calendar Labels to Color Categories (these items may be present in a PST file imported from an earlier version of Outlook).
Advanced: Click this button to open a dialog box where you can change the display name for the file, change or assign a password, and compact the file to save disk space.
The properties dialog box for a personal folders file also has a Home Page tab, shown in Figure 18.18. The settings here determine what Outlook displays in its main window when the Personal Folders file (not one of its folders) is selected in the navigation pane. There are three options:
Turn the Show Home Page option off: The main window displays blank when the file is selected.
Turn the Show Home Page option on and use the default address: The main window displays Outlook Today with a summary of tasks and messages.
Turn the Show Home Page option on and enter another address: The main window displays the page, which can be local or remote. You can type in a URL or use the Browse button to find a local file.
Click the Restore Defaults button to return to the default address of the Outlook Today page.
Note
You can customize the Outlook Today page to meet your needs. This topic is covered in Chapter 19.
Search folders are an Outlook tool that lets you automate the process of finding certain email messages. A search folder is a virtual folder that displays messages that meet certain criteria. You can display messages from certain people, messages with specified words in the subject or body, messages with attachments, messages with importance marked as high—the possibilities are seemingly endless.
What do I mean by virtual? It means that the search folder does not actually contain the message but only displays it—the message itself remains in its original folder such as the Inbox.
Outlook is installed with three default search folders, located in the folder Search Folders. They are
Categorized Mail displays all mail items that have been assigned a color category.
Large Mail displays all messages larger than 100 KB.
Unread Mail displays messages that have not been read.
The default folders are not set in stone—you can delete them, rename them, and redefine their criteria, as explained next. You cannot, however, move them.
Outlook comes with a number of predefined search folders (including the default search folders). You can add any of these folders as follows:
In Mail view, select New from the File menu, then select Search Folder. Outlook displays the New Search Folder dialog box (see Figure 18.19).
Click the search folder you want to add.
For some search folders, a Choose button is displayed. Click this button to specify additional criteria for the search folder. For example, if you select the Mail from Specific People, you will click the Choose button to select the people whose messages will be displayed in the search folder.
Use the Search Mail In list to select the personal folders file the search folder will search. A search folder can be associated with only one source PST file.
Click OK.
The new search folder is added to the Search Folders folder.
If the predefined search folders do not meet your needs, you can define a custom search folder:
In Mail view, select New from the File menu, then select Search Folder. Outlook displays the New Search Folder dialog box (shown earlier in Figure 18.19).
Scroll down and select Create a Custom Search Folder.
Click the Choose button to display the Custom Search Folder dialog box (see Figure 18.20).
Enter a name for the search folder in the Name box. It is advisable to use a descriptive name.
If necessary, click the Browse button to select the personal folders file that this search folder will be connected to.
Click the Criteria button to display the Search Folder Criteria dialog box (see Figure 18.21).
Use the three tabs in this dialog box to define criteria as follows:
On the Messages tab, define criteria that involve words in the message subject or body, the person the message is from or is sent to, and the time of the message.
On the More Choices tab, define criteria that involve the message's read status, attachments, importance level, flag status, or size.
On the Advanced tab, define criteria that involve custom message fields.
When you are finished defining criteria, click OK twice to close all dialog boxes.
Many Outlook users have a large number of mail folders, but use only a few of them regularly. To make it easy to get at these frequently used folders, Outlook lets you define Favorite Folders displayed in a separate section of the navigation pane, as shown in Figure 18.22.
Actions you can take with Favorite Folders are as follows:
To turn Favorite Folders display on or off, select Navigation Pane from the View menu and click Favorite Folders on the next menu.
To add a folder to Favorite Folders, right-click the folder and select Add to Favorite Folders from the popup menu.
To remove a folder from Favorite Folders, right-click the folder and select Remove From Favorite Folders from the popup menu.
To change the order of folders in the Favorite Folders list, right-click a folder and select Move Up in List or Move Down in List from the popup menu.
Remember that folders in the Favorite Folders list are not separate from the folders in the regular list. For example, in Figure 18.22 there is still only one Inbox folder but you have two ways to get to it.
When you delete a folder or an Outlook item, it does not vanish permanently—at least not immediately. Rather, it goes to the Deleted Items folder. This is a safety feature that allows users to recover from accidental deletions. You can "delete" items in the usual way (select them and press Del) or you can drag them to the Deleted Items folder.
When you delete an item from the Deleted Items folder, it is truly gone. Most people prefer to delete items from this folder manually, by selecting one or more items and pressing Del. To delete all items from the Deleted Items folder, select Empty "Deleted Items" Folder from the Tools menu. You can also tell Outlook to automatically empty the Deleted Items folder whenever the program exits as follows:
Select Options from the Tools menu to open the Options dialog box.
Click the Other tab (shown in Figure 18.23).
Select the Empty Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting option.
Click OK.
AutoArchive is an Outlook tool that can automatically archive mail messages and other items based on their age. It is based on the premise that there are many Outlook items that you will probably never need but don't want to permanently delete just in case. By moving these items to an archive, they no longer clog up your personal folders but are available when and if you need them. AutoArchive can also permanently delete items that you are sure you will not need again.
Items archived are kept in a separate PST file called, appropriately enough, Archive.PST. It is kept in the same location on your disk as your personal PST file as described earlier in this chapter— although, unlike the Personal Folders file, you can change this location. After archiving items for the first time, the archive file appears in your folder list along with your personal folders, as shown in Figure 18.24.
An archive file retains the folder structure of your personal folders file, making it easy to find things.
The archiving process is completely under your control. You do not have to use it at all, but if you do you can decide which folders are archived, how often the archiving process is run, how old an item has to be in order to be archived, and so on. Many of these settings are made in the AutoArchive dialog box, shown in Figure 18.25. To display this dialog box:
Here are the options available in this dialog box:
Run AutoArchive Every: If this option is selected, Outlook will run AutoArchive automatically at the selected interval—the default is 14 days. If this option is not selected, you can run AutoArchive when desired by selecting Archive from the File menu (more on this soon).
Prompt Before AutoArchive Runs: If this option is selected, Outlook will prompt you before AutoArchive runs. Otherwise it will run without notification.
Delete Expired Items (E-mail Folders Only): Specifies that expired email items will be deleted and not moved to the archive file.
Archive or Delete Old Items: Determines whether remaining options in the dialog box are available.
Clean Out Items Older Than: Specifies the age at which items are archived. The default is 6 months.
Move Old Items To: If selected, old items (other than email items) are archived to the specified archive file.
Permanently Delete Old Items: If selected, old items are deleted and not archived.
Apply These Settings to All Folders Now: Use your selected settings for all folders (as opposed to individual archive settings for each folder, as described soon).
Retention Policy Information: Some organizations set retention policies for Outlook items when you are using an Exchange server. See Chapter 28 for more information on using Outlook with an Exchange server.
You may not want all your Outlook items treated the same as regard to archiving. For example, you may want to keep work-related emails for a longer period than personal emails. You can set AutoArchive options for individual folders (other than Contacts folders) as follows:
Right-click the folder.
Select Properties from the context menu to display the Properties dialog box for the folder.
Click the AutoArchive tab (see Figure 18.26).
Set options as described in the previous section.
Tip
It's easy for your PST file to grow to a huge size. In and of itself this is not a problem, but it does slow things down. Deleting unneeded items on a regular basis is a good idea—and I mean permanently deleting them, not just moving them to the Deleted Items folder. But suppose you received a message with a large attachment. You want to keep the message but no longer need the attachment. You can remove the attachment and save space in your PST file by opening the message, right-clicking the attachment, and selecting Remove from the context menu.
Each Outlook folder has a set of options, or properties, that determine certain aspects of the folder's display and operation. Each folder's properties are accessed by right-clicking the folder in the navigation pane and selecting Properties from the context menu. There are some slight differences in the properties you can change depending on the folder. For example, you can change the name of folders that you have created but not of Outlook's default folders such as Inbox and Contacts.
The Properties dialog box has five tabs. The General tab, shown in Figure 18.27, has these settings:
Name: At the top of the dialog box the folder's name is displayed. You can change this for non-default folders.
Description: Enter an optional description for the folder.
Show...: Select whether the folder displays the number of unread items or the total number of items in parentheses next to its name.
When Posting to This Folder, Use: Use this option to select a form that will be used as the default for postings to this folder.
Automatically Generate Microsoft Exchange Views: Select this option if you want Outlook to automatically create views of public folders that can be viewed by other Exchange users. Relevant for Exchange accounts only.
Folder Size: Click this button to view information on the size of the folder and any subfolders it contains.
The Home Page tab lets you specify a web page that will be displayed as the default view for this folder.
The AutoArchive tab lets you set AutoArchive options for this folder. These are explained elsewhere in this chapter in the section "Setting AutoArchive Options for Individual Folders."
The Administration tab is mostly relevant for Exchange accounts and is covered in detail in Chapter 28. For non-Exchange accounts, most of the items will be grayed out (as in the figure). The one item you can set for non-Exchange folders is the Initial View On Folder, which determines how the folder contents are displayed when the folder is first opened. For example, for a Mail folder you can use the default Normal view or you can select to have items displayed by From, by Subject, and so on.
The Forms tab lets you specify which forms are used with this folder. Forms and setting form options for a folder are covered in detail in Chapter 26.
Losing data is the worst nightmare of most computer users, and given the importance of all the information stored in Outlook, losing your Outlook data is a particularly terrifying possibility. Unless you or your employer has an integrated backup solution in place, I advise you to make the effort to back up your Outlook data regularly. You have several ways to do this.
As mentioned previously, all your Outlook data—email messages, contacts, tasks, appointments, account settings, and so on—is by default stored in a personal folders file named Outlook.PST. This file is kept in the following location (where user is your Windows logon):
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: X:Documents and SettingsuserLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook
Windows Vista: X: userLocal SettingsAppDataMicrosoftOutlook
You may have additional PST files as well—Archive.PST if you are using the AutoArchive feature as well as any other personal folders files that you created. Archive.PST is kept in the same default location as Outlook.PST, and any additional personal folders files are stored where you specified.
Backing up these files is simply a matter of making copies in a secure location. Be aware, however, that before you can copy these files you must exit Outlook and any other programs that might access them, such as Windows Messaging or a remote connection to Microsoft Exchange. Then use Windows Explorer or another means to make the copy.
Where should you copy these files to? That depends on your setup and resources. If you are on a network, there may be a location on the network server that you can use for backup. If you have a CD burner, creating backups on CD is an excellent choice. Other options that may be open to you include flash drives and external hard disks.
Outlook data consists of items such as email messages, appointments, and contacts. These items are organized into folders that are, in most cases, specialized to hold a single type of item. Folders in turn are stored in a Personal Folders file that also contains your account information and other Outlook settings. This chapter showed you how to work with items, folders, and data files to keep your Outlook information organized, accessible, and backed up.