MSU-Northern ITS: Info About Managing Your E-Mail Using Outlook 2007

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Last Updated: 18-Jun-2009

Information Technology Services: Managing E-Mail

Managing Your E-Mail Using Outlook 2007

Mailbox Storage
Checking your email quota is very important, as you only have 250 megabytes of storage in your Northern email account. This limit is for all information stored in your Mailbox, which includes Inbox & subfolders, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes and Sent Items. Once you reach 230MB, you will get a warning to clean out or archive messages to free up space. If you reach 250MB, you will not be able to send or receive messages and your mailbox will be closed.

To see how much space you are currently using:

1.	Right click the Mailbox icon in the folder list and select Properties for Mailbox
2.	Click the Folder Size... button in the lower left area on the properties window.
3.	The number shown for Total size (including subfolders): in the Folder Size window is the amount of storage space you are currently using. Each 1000KB = 1MB Example: 163909 KB = 163.9MB

Local Storage
Messages can be moved out of your Exchange mailbox on the server and into an Outlook Data file on your computer. Generally this file resides on your local hard drive and has a ".pst" extension. It can also be located on your network storage drive. Local storage folders are easy to find if you navigate Outlook folders using the Folder List.

Archive & Folder-Specific Archive Settings
Messages can be automatically moved out your Exchange Mailbox Storage to your Local Storage by using the AutoArchive feature.

To review and modify AutoArchive settings:

Click Tools on the Outlook menu bar,
Select Options
Click the Other tab and then click the AutoArchive... button. This will open the AutoArchive dialog form.

AutoArchive Screen
Here you can set how often the AutoArchive runs and set how old the items should be before the are moved to the archive. You can see by the Move old items to field that AutoArchive will move old items to the archive.pst file. Clicking the Apply these settings to all folders now button will set all your Outlook folder to the settings you have selected.

However, it is important to note that clicking the OK button merely applies the setting to the Mailbox, it does not run the archive. The archive will run when the 14 day cycle passes.

To Archive Now according to settings...
To run the archive according to the settings you specified, click File then select Archive... and then select the first option, Archive all folders according to their AutoArchive settings. When you click OK, the archive will run and your status bar (lower right corner of screen) will show it running. Let it run without interruption (it may take a few minutes).

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Archiving Tips

Sometimes users like to have an AutoArchive configuration which includes a default archive setting for 6 months for the Mailbox but want to archive the Sent Items folder after 1 month.

You can change the AutoArchive settings on individual folders by right-clicking on the folder you want to change, select Properties and then go to the AutoArchive tab and change the settings.

Mailbox Cleanup Tips

In addition to archiving email, these steps will help keep your mailbox clean.

Deleted Items – By default, Outlook is set to permanently delete items in the deleted items folder upon exiting Outlook. This helps to clear space in the deleted items folder. To check and make sure your Outlook is doing this, click Tools -> Options -> Other. Make sure there is a checkmark by “Empty Deleted Items upon exiting.” You can also delete items, by right clicking on the Deleted Items folder and choose Empty Deleted Items Folder.

Sent Items – The sent items folder contains a copy of every email message you send. To delete items just click on the Sent Items folder and delete as desired.

Junk E-mail folder – Look at your Junk E-mail folder regularly to make sure you see legitimate email that you would want to view. If you wish to move items in your Junk E-mail to your inbox, just click and hold on that item and drag it to your Inbox folder. You can empty the Junk E-mail folder by right clicking on the junk email folder and selecting “Empty Junk E-mail.”
NOTE: If your Junk E-mail folder looks like this:

, you don't have any Junk email.