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Managing Your Outlook Data
by Tina Chase

After reading Mary-Lou's troubles with her Outlook PST files in last month's newsletter, I got in touch with her to give some suggestions about how I'd handled the situation earlier this year. She asked if I'd share some of these for the newsletter so I hope this supports you in avoiding problems.

Warmly,
Tina Chase TC @ Your PC

• The Scenario
• Compacting The PST File
• Creating Additional PST Files
• Forum on Virtual Assistance

Unlike Mary-Lou, I have not yet taken the plunge to upgrade to Office 2007 so I am still hindered by the 2 GB PST file size limit.

I first read about the 2 Gigabyte (GB) limit for an Outlook Personal Folder File (PST) around January, and suddenly realized I was getting precariously close at 1.8 GB. I readily admit I am an information junkie and an electronic pack-rat, so I really did have data in my Outlook that could be cleared out. I feverishly began re-organizing my folders, deleting old messages, and saving out attachments I wanted to keep.

I made great use of a handy feature of Outlook 2003, the "Large Mail" list in the Search folders, to identify which emails were taking up the most space.

Compacting The PST File

I literally deleted thousands of messages, and after emptying my deleted items folder, I was thoroughly dismayed to discover my PST file was not getting any smaller.

I did some more research and found out the PST file will continue to expand as you receive new messages, but not shrink when you delete them. In order to get the file to accurately reflect the size of all your Outlook contents, you must run a utility to compact your PST files.

This can be found under the File menu in Data File Management. Once there, highlight the PST file to be compacted, Click the "Settings" button, and then click the "Compact Now" button. This could take a while depending on how much you deleted.

It's good to get in the habit of doing this on a regular basis. I sometimes run it once a day, but at least once a week. If nothing else, at least try to run this right before you backup your Outlook files.

Creating Additional PST Files

If you've cleaned up as much as you can, and still find your PST file to be fairly large, another option is to create additional PST files and move folders into them to split up your data.

This is accessed from the File menu, under New, Outlook Data File. When creating the new file, it will prompt you for a filename and location; with the default location being the data directory where your current Outlook PST file is stored. Although you can create it elsewhere, leaving all your PST files in the same location will help to simplify your backups. Give your new PST file a name to help identify what type of information you plan to store in it.

This new PST file is different than your Outlook PST file, in that it does not contain the calendar, tasks, contacts, etc. You can have multiple PST files open at one time, and each time you start Outlook it will continue to open any/all PST files you had open the last time you exited. You can even set up filters to move items into folders in your secondary PST files.

One important thing to note is that each PST file does have its own deleted items folder (recycling bin), and therefore each one needs to be emptied individually, by right-clicking on the folder and choosing: Empty "Deleted Items" Folder. Running the "Empty Deleted Items Folder" from the Tools menu, will only affect the main Outlook PST file. Keep in mind that each secondary PST file will also need to be compacted separately.

If you are not ready to upgrade to Office 2007, and you keep a lot of information in Outlook, these tips should help you keep you better manage your files and keep them a little more tidy and organized.

It's important to note that several of the features outlined above are based on Outlook 2003 and may not be available if you are still using Outlook 2000 or 2002.

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