Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Use your stored messagesWhether you’re using the Personal Folders method or the Archive method of storage, messages are kept in a PST file on your computer. And they are no different from other messages.

For instance, you can forward or reply to them, and you can search your stored messages if, for example, you need to jog your memory about a project you worked on or a decision you made.

To do these tasks with your stored messages, you need to open the PST file in the Navigation Pane.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Open a Personal Folders or Archive Folders fileTo find messages that you’ve stored in a PST file, you’ll open Personal Folders or Archive Folders in the Navigation Pane by clicking the plus sign next to it.

If you don’t see the folder you want in the Navigation Pane, you’ll need to open the PST file.

On the File menu, point to Open, and then click Outlook Data File. After you select the PST file you want — the picture shows Archive Folders — it will appear under All Mail Items.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Avoid the Open With caution message One big difference between PST files and other types of files: You can’t double-click a PST file to open it.

If you try, you’ll see a message similar to this one.

It can be frustrating or confusing to get a caution message suggesting that you click Open With.

To avoid it, just remember that to open a PST file, you always start in Outlook and use the File menu, as described in the previous section.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Close the file when you’re doneYou can display as many PST files as you like in the Navigation Pane at one time.

As mentioned earlier, having too many PST files open at one time will slow the performance of Outlook.

If you no longer need to review the contents of a PST file, you can remove it from the Navigation Pane.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Close the file when you’re doneYou can display as many PST files as you like in the Navigation Pane at one time.

Do this by right-clicking it and clicking Close “Personal Folders”, Close “Archive Folders”, or Close whatever unique name you’ve given your PST file.

Closing a PST file keeps it from being displayed in Outlook, but it doesn’t affect its contents or its location on your computer.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Copy a PST to create a backupIf your computer crashes or if you don’t have access to the e-mail server, wouldn’t it be nice to have backup copies of your important messages somewhere else, such as a CD?

You can do this by copying a PST file. You can then move the copied file (and the messages it contains) to another computer or to a CD.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Copy a PST to create a backupYou’ll need to close Outlook before you do this.

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Right-click the file in Windows Explorer and click Copy.

Move the pointer to the location where you want to paste the copy of the file, right-click, and click Paste.

The result: The copied file is pasted with the original file name and the word "Copy" so that you know it’s a copy.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Find a PST on your computerSo you like the idea of copying a PST file to back up your messages or to move them to another computer.

How do you find the file in order to copy it?

Before you close Outlook to start making your copy, use the Account Settings dialog box to identify the file name and location of the PST file that you want to copy.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Find a PST on your computerRemember that a PST file is an Outlook data file. And finding the file is your first step to managing it.

So the command that you click on the File menu is Data File Management.

Before you close Outlook, select the file that you want to copy and click Open Folder, as shown in the picture. Then you can close Outlook. The folder containing the PST will remain open so that you can copy it.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

More about finding PST filesNow that we’ve shown you how easy it is, we have to mention that the Data File Management method we just described does have a caveat.

Before you can see a file’s location using that method, the file must be open in Outlook.

That is, if you’ve closed a PST or if you’re looking for one that you recently copied to your computer and haven’t yet opened in Outlook, you may need to do a little looking around outside Outlook.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

More about finding PST filesAnd sometimes PST files seem downright invisible when you start to look for them outside Outlook.

That’s because some of the places Outlook stores PST files are normally hidden in Windows.

To see these files in Windows Explorer, you must use the option in Windows to display hidden files and folders.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Avoid problems: Part 1 (Close, close)Storing data in a PST file can have lots of advantages.

But if you’re not careful when you move, rename, or copy a PST, you may see an error message like this.

To avoid problems in Outlook later, follow this guideline: Before you move, rename, or copy a PST file, first close it from the Navigation Pane, and then close Outlook.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Avoid problems: Part 2 (One person at a time)Look familiar?

In this case, though, the warning tells you that the PST file can’t be opened.

The most likely cause is that someone else already has the file open and so has locked you out.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Avoid problems: Part 2 (One person at a time)How can that happen?

Although you’ll get the best performance with PSTs when they’re stored on your own computer, it is possible to open a PST that’s stored on any other computer on your network.

To avoid problems, remember that PST files are for use by one person at a time, on one computer at a time.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Search multiple PST files at one timeNew to Outlook 2007 is the ability to search multiple PST files at one time.

Any PST file can be searched together with any others.

This means that if you’re searching for a message that you know you filed, but you’re not certain which file you put it in, you can find it easily with a single search.

Manage your mailbox V: Retrieve, back up, or share messages

Search multiple PST files at one timeHow? Make sure that the data files that you want to search are open — if they are, you’ll see them in the Navigation Pane.

Select All Mail Items as the location for your search and then select the files that you want to search.

All Mail Items also appears at the top of the Instant Search pane, so you can clearly see that you’re searching multiple files.