1. Microsoft ® Office Outlook ® 2007 Training Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages Jim Taliaferro Community Mental Health Center

3. Overview: Archive mysteries solved Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages Are you perplexed every time Outlook asks you if you’re ready to archive your e-mail? Here’s your shot at illumination: This course will show you just how Archive works. Even better, you’ll find out how to make Archive work for you, exactly the way you want it to.

5. Lesson 1 What’s that message all about?

6. What’s that message all about? Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages Is this message familiar? Do you feel guilty when you click No in this dialog box because you’re not really sure what AutoArchive does? Don’t worry. That’s what this course will help with. And once you know the details, you just may feel more like clicking Yes (or at least feel okay with saying No ).

7. Archive basics Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages So how does Archive work? In this process, messages are moved automatically from your mailbox to a folder called Archive Folders . To start the process, you’ll click Yes . Messages are moved from your mailbox… … to the Archive Folders folder. The picture shows more detail:

8. Step 1: Make sure it’s on; decide how often Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages AutoArchive is turned on by default. You’ll know it’s working if you’re periodically prompted with the “Would you like to AutoArchive…” message introduced at the beginning of this course. If you don’t get those prompts, you can find out whether AutoArchive is turned on by looking in the AutoArchive dialog box.

9. Step 1: Make sure it’s on; decide how often Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages The picture shows the details. If the Run AutoArchive every check box is selected, AutoArchive is on. (And if you don’t like AutoArchive, you can turn it off from here by clearing the check box.) The number of days indicates the frequency with which AutoArchive will run.

10. Step 2: Specify what “old” means Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages With AutoArchive, the messages are moved after you see the prompt, if you’ve selected that check box. However, you do get to control a few things. AutoArchive has several default settings. And they’re yours to change. This means that you get to specify what “old” means.

11. Step 2: Specify what “old” means Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages For some people, mail may seem old after two weeks; for others, it may be two months. You choose the settings for when to archive messages in the AutoArchive dialog box, using the options shown in the picture. Each time AutoArchive runs, anything that meets the “old” criterion will be sent to the Archive Folders folder.

12. Archive moves messages according to age Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages As mentioned earlier, Archive automatically moves messages according to age. That is, messages move to an Archive folder when they achieve “maturity,” as determined by the setting you specify in the AutoArchive dialog box. Maturity is based on how long a message sits around without your touching it — in other words, a message’s last modified date.

19. Lesson 2 Get fancy with Archive

20. Get fancy with Archive Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages Archive can be very flexible. You don’t have to archive only at the selected time intervals; you can do it any time. And you don’t have to archive everything.

21. Specify exceptions Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages If you’d like to customize your archiving, Outlook makes it easy to take control. You can archive different folders at different intervals — or not at all. You can set up archiving rules on a folder-by-folder basis. You can also exclude entire folders from the process. It’s your choice.

22. Specify exceptions Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages You start by right-clicking the folder, clicking Properties , and specifying your custom settings, as the picture shows. After you choose these settings, AutoArchive will just happen. That’s what makes it so easy. Still, do remember to do periodic tune-ups. As you add folders, you’ll want to adjust their AutoArchive settings.

23. Make it happen when you want Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages Suppose your Inbox is getting messy or too full, and your regularly scheduled time for AutoArchive is a week away. What can you do? You can say, “Archive this now” by clicking Archive on the File menu. Any messages that have reached their maturity date will be archived on the spot.

24. Archive calendar entries or other Outlook items Manage your mailbox IV: Archive old messages AutoArchive works with more than e-mail; it works with items from the Calendar and for Tasks as well. And just as you can customize the Archive settings for e-mail, you can customize the settings for the Calendar folder or Tasks folder. Note that when it comes to people, the rules for archiving do not apply. In Outlook, you keep track of people with Contacts, and Contacts are not archived.