MS outlook exporting messages

[MelaniB]

Hello All:
Hoping someone out there can point me in the correct direction. My school district is moving from Microsoft Outlook to e-chalk (web based mail). My problem is Microsoft Outlook is going to be totally removed from our
network. I am looking for a "quick and easy" way to export all my saved outlook folders and files into a format that will readable without outlook. I have been given suggestions of forwarding any mail to the new address
(this takes way too long and takes up quite a bit of space on the web based system) or exporting individual emails as text files. I just think there must be an easier way.
Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated by the many "e-mail folder junkies".
Thanks so much,
Melani Bendfeldt
bendfeldtm @ ramapocentral.org
Melani Bendfeldt
Instructional Technology Facilitator
Viola School
557 Haverstraw Road
Suffern, New York 10901
845-357-8315 x224

 

[compgirlfhredi]

Generally, if you save your messages as described below you'll have a copy of your address book. That's because the Contacts folder is stored with all your other folders. However, you can get to just the address book if that's what you want. Outlook 2000 has an extensive import and export feature that's available through the File | Import and Export menu. Select "Export to a file" and choose "Comma separated values" as the data format. Then select your Contacts folder and provide a name for the exported file. This format is readable by almost any mail program, and you can even use Notepad to read it in a pinch. One unfortunate thing you may encounter is that the import/export wizard may not be installed and you'll have to dig out your original Outlook 2000 CD to install it. However, you can also export your address book through Outlook Express since they share the same address book.
Account Settings
Outlook 2000 mail accounts are stored in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook. To save this data, start RegEdit and select that key in the left-hand pane. Then from the menu select Registry | Export Registry File. Save the file to a name like OL2KACCT.REG and put it in a safe place. Like the address list, this will fit on a floppy for most people. To restore the account settings, right-click the .REG file and select Merge.
Mail Messages and Rules
Outlook 2000 stores all your messages and folders in a single file ending with a .PST extension, usually OUTLOOK.PST. You may also see an ARCHIVE.PST, which are the old messages and tasks that Outlook cleans out of your main .PST file if you have archiving turned on. Where are these files hidden? To find out, go to Outlook 2000 and right-click the root folder (usually named Mail) and click Properties. Then click the Advanced button on the dialog. You'll see a value named Path that tells you where the file is located. Typically, it's C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook, but you may also see files stored in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook as well. You can make backup copies of these files, but make sure to exit Outlook so that the files will not be in use while you're trying to make copies!
Mail Rules and More
Mail filtering rules are kept in a file with a .RWZ extension, usually in this same directory with your mail messages. There may also be a few other settings and log files in this directory. Since all these files are small, I suggest you back up all of them. Outlook is pretty configurable, so even if you save all these files you'll have a lot of configuring to do on a clean install. You can save yourself a lot of clicking if you go into RegEdit and export the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook to a file. If you want, you can save all your Office 2000 settings including Outlook accounts by exporting the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office subkey to a name like 0F2KSAVE.REG. To get all your settings back, just right-click the file you saved and select Merge.

Microsoft released a great little utility called Personal Folders Backup that helps you remember to save your mail folders. It can be set to remind you to do backups when you exit mail, and all you need to do is click the button and it will make the backup. You can even set the backup file location, so it's easy to back up to another disk or a network share. A second utility that I think is less useful is Save my Settings which lets you save some of your Office 2000 preferences (but not your important data like mail messages or address book) to a Microsoft web site. You can later retrieve those settings, either to restore them for the same computer or to migrate them to a new computer. My preference is to save the registry tree manually, rather than sending this data to some unknown Microsoft web site.