Archiving in Microsoft Outlook 2003 & 2007

Your Microsoft Outlook mailbox grows as items are created in the same way that papers pile up on your desk. In the paper-based world, you can occasionally shuffle through your documents and store those that are important but that are rarely used. You can discard documents that are less important, such as newspapers and magazines, based on their age.

You can quickly complete the same process in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003. You can manually transfer old items to a storage file by clicking Archive on the File menu, or you can have old items automatically transferred by using the AutoArchive feature. Items are considered old when they reach the age that you specify. With the AutoArchive feature, you can either delete or move old items. Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003 can archive all kinds of items, but it can only locate files that are stored in an e-mail folder, such as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Word document, that is attached to an e-mail message. A file that is not stored in an e-mail folder cannot be archived.

The AutoArchive feature has a two-step process. First, you turn on the AutoArchive feature. Second, you set the properties for the AutoArchive feature for each folder that you want archived.

At the folder level, you can determine the items that are to be archived and how frequently they are archived. You can automatically archive individual folders, or you can configure a default AutoArchive setting for all folders and then configure AutoArchive settings for individual folders that you do not want to use the default AutoArchive settings. The AutoArchive feature runs automatically whenever you start Outlook. Outlook checks the AutoArchive properties of each folder by date and moves old items to your archive file. Items that are moved to the Deleted Items folder are deleted.

By default, several Outlook folders are set up with the AutoArchive feature turned on. The following is a list of the folders that have the AutoArchive feature turned on and of each folder's default aging period:

• The Calendar folder (6 months)
• The Tasks folder (6 months)
• The Journal folder (6 months)
• The Sent Items folder (2 months)
• The Deleted Items folder (2 months)

The Inbox, the Notes, the Contacts, and the Drafts folders do not have the AutoArchive feature turned on automatically. You cannot use the AutoArchive feature with the Contacts folder, and the Contacts folder does not have an archive property.

Contact Mobile PC Solutions for more information on manually archiving or on Outlook's AutoArchive feature.