Microsoft KB Archive/182062

Knowledge Base

OL98: Working with Personal Folders

Article ID: 182062

Article Last Modified on 6/1/2001

---

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Outlook 98 Standard Edition

---

This article was previously published under Q182062

SUMMARY

Personal Folders are folders that you create to store mail messages on your hard disk or on another server. You add a main Personal Folders as a service to the User Profile and give it a file name. Personal Folders have a .pst extension. For Microsoft Mail Post Offices, a Personal Folders is set up automatically because the Inbox and Outlook folders reside there.

MORE INFORMATION

The Personal Folders file contains folders, messages, forms, and files. You work with a Personal Folders file (.pst) as you would with any other file, and you can save, copy, and move a .pst file to another location on your hard disk, a floppy disk, or a server. You can also designate a Personal Folders file as the delivery location for your incoming messages.

If you have installed Outlook with the Internet Mail Only (IMO) option, skip to the "Set the Delivery Location (IMO)" section.

Set the Delivery Location (CW)

To set the delivery location, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Services.
2. In the Services dialog box, click the Delivery tab.
3. In the "Deliver new mail to the following location box," click to select where you want to send and receive messages.
   

If you set up a computer to use Remote Mail, you must click the name of a personal folder file. If you set up a computer to use offline folders, you must click the name of your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox.

1. Click OK.
2. Quit and restart Outlook.

Set the Delivery Location (IMO)

To set the delivery location for an Internet Mail Only installation, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, point to New, and click Personal Folders File (.pst).
2. In Create Personal Folders, navigate to the location where you wish to create the file, type a name in the File Name box, and click Create.
3. Type a new name for the Personal Folders if you wish, set Encryption Settings, and then type a password if you want to password-protect the file, then click OK.
   

1. On the View menu, click Folder List to display the Folder List.
2. In the Folder List click Personal Folders, and on the File menu, point to Folder and then click Properties.
   

NOTE: If you created a new name for your Personal Folders, it will appear as Properties for "Your Personal Folders Name."

1. Click to select "Deliver POP mail to this personal folders file," then click OK.
2. Quit and restart Outlook.

If you have a personal folder in the Folder List that you no longer want to display, right-click on it and click Close "<Personal Folder name>". The Folder will be removed from the Folder List.

Backing Up Your Personal Folders File

Follow these steps to back up your Personal Folders file and all subfolders:

1. On the Outlook File menu, click Import And Export to open the Import And Export Wizard.
2. In the "Choose an action to perform" list, click to select "Export to a file" and click Next.
3. In the "Create a file of type" list, click to select "Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
4. In the "Select the folder to export from" list, click "Personal Folders."
5. Click to select the "Include subfolders" check box, and then click Next.
6. In the "Save exported file as" box, type the path and file name of a destination .pst file, or click Browse and select a destination .pst file.
7. Under Options, click to select how you want duplicate items treated, and click Finish.

Backing Up Outlook Folders

Outlook folders, such as Calendar, Contacts, Journal, Tasks, and e-mail message folders are components of the Personal Folders file in an Internet Mail Only installation. This procedure will back up an individual Outlook folder in a different Personal Folders (.pst) file. To individually back up your Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Journal, follow these steps::

1. On the File menu, click Import And Export to open the Import And Export Wizard.
2. In the "Choose an action to perform" list, click to select "Export to a file" and then click Next.
3. In the "Create a file of type" list, click to select "Personal Folder File (.pst), and click Next.
4. In the "Select the folder to export from" list, click to select the Outlook item folder you want to back up. For example, select your Contacts folder to back up your Contacts in a different .pst file.
5. Click Next.
6. In the "Save exported file as" box, type the path and file name of a destination .pst file or click Browse and select a destination .pst file.
7. Under Options, click to select how you want duplicate items treated, and click Finish.

Exporting Outlook Folders to Another File Format

Follow these steps to export your Outlook folders to a different file format:

1. On the File menu, click Import And Export to open the Import And Export Wizard.
2. In the "Choose an action to perform" list, click to select "Export to a file," and click Next.
3. In the "Create a file of type" list, click to select another file format, such as "Tab Separated Values (Windows)," and click Next.
4. In the "Select the folder to export from" list, click to select the Outlook item folder you want to export. For example, select your Contacts folder to export your Contacts in a different file format.
5. Click Next.
6. In the "Save exported file as" box type a path and file name, or click Browse to select a destination file, then click Next. Click Finish to start the export.

NOTE: The fields in the exported file will match Outlook internal field names. If you wish to change these names, you must do so in the application that receives the file.

Using Outlook with Personal Folders as your delivery point does not allow for advanced workgroup information sharing. This workgroup functionality is available only when the default delivery is set to the Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox.

To Delete a Personal Folder from a Profile

To remove a Personal Folder from a profile, follow these steps: NOTE: In order to reopen Outlook, at least one Personal Folder must be associated with a profile. The data in the Personal Folder file will not be available unless imported or reassociated to the profile.

1. On the Start menu, click Settings and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Mail or Mail and Fax icon.
3. On the Services tab, click the Personal Folders entry and then click Remove. Click OK.

To remove the Personal Folder service in Outlook, right-click the Personal Folder in the Folder List, and then click Close <Foldername>, where <Foldername> is the name of the Personal Folder. This action will remove the Personal Folder from the profile as well.

To Remove Individual Folders from a Personal Folder

To remove a folder from the Personal Folder, follow these steps: IMPORTANT: Deleting a folder from the Folder List deletes all items stored within the folder.

1. In the Folder List, right-click the folder to be deleted.
2. Click Delete <foldername>, where <foldername> is the name of the folder you wish to delete.
3. To permanently delete the folder, right-click the Deleted Items folder and then click Empty "Deleted Items" Folder.

REFERENCES

For more information on Field Mapping in Outlook 98, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Article-ID: 182728
Title : OL98: Field Mapping for Importing Not Available

Additional query words: 98

Keywords: kbhowto kbgraphxlinkcritical kbgraphxlink KB182062

---

Send feedback to Microsoft

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.