How to save emails offline and maintain a good organizational system?

May 20, 2009 6:51 AM

OutlookFilter: we've been instructed to clean out our work e-mail. My co-worker has been using her e-mail as an effective filing system. Is there a way that she can both a) download the emails to her hard drive and b) maintain an interface that allows her to organize the e-mails by date, subject, sender, etc.?

I know how to download e-mail and folders from outlook and view them offline -- but is there a way to stop the folders from syncing up with the folders on the server? That is, is there a way to download folders that are purely offline folders and view them within Outlook?

I'm open to any solution that involves both freeing up space on the e-mail server and allowing this co-worker to maintain access to a pleasing user interface and organization system. I'd prefer not to download additional software, but would be open to it. Thanks!

posted by jeffmshaw to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Move them to a local .pst file. It's a local Outlook file and not connected to the server.
posted by The Michael The at 6:58 AM on May 20

Under the file menu you will find import and export commands. From the Export menu item you will see the .pst option.
posted by mattoxic at 7:00 AM on May 20

Rather than go through an Export, simply choose File > New > Personal Folder File (or in newer versions Outlook Data File).

Give it a name, and it will appear in your left-hand tree layout alongside your current folders.

Drag things into the new folder to move them to the local copy, then you can delete them from the server list. As always, back up this information regularly from now on.
posted by odinsdream at 7:02 AM on May 20 [2 favorites]

If she Acrobat Professional available to her, Acrobat can create a indexed, searchable PDF of all emails in a particular folder into one PDF with just a couple of clicks. The resulting PDF archive contains a cover page listing all emails and you also can include all attachments within the PDF. More information/screenshots here. It's a little used feature of Acrobat that really comes in handy.
posted by webhund at 7:48 AM on May 20 [4 favorites]

Note that the personal folders will not be available through webmail or the exchange servers. I'm not saying that to discourage the personal folder idea (that's what I do myself), but if she needs to access those emails remotely it can be a problematic solution.
posted by Kimberly at 12:19 PM on May 20