Although Outlook creates a personal folder file for you, you may want to create another one to help you organize your data. You can open the Create Personal Folders dialog box in one of a few ways:

-       Click the Start menu, click Control Panel, click Mail, click Data Files, and click Add. (We’ll cover Mail icon options in depth in a little while.)

-       Click the File menu, click New, and choose Outlook Data File.

-       Click the File menu, click Data File Management, and click Add.

-       Click the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts, click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and click New Outlook Data File.

 

When you perform any of these commands, you’ll see this dialog appear:

 

 

You may have other options listed in the New Outlook Data file window depending on which programs you have installed, but the items you see in the sample above are the default options. They reflect the two personal folder file types that we talked about earlier. (If you click on either type listed in the white box, it will provide you with a description of that file type in the lower half.) Typically, you would choose the first file type as it will provide you with the most storage.

 

Once we’ve chosen a file type and clicked OK, we’ll see the next part of the wizard:

 

 

This is where we can tell Outlook where to save our new personal folder file. By default, it will place your file where it places the ones that are created automatically, in C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. It will also name it PersonalFolders(1).pst; if this file already exists, it will replace the number (1) with the next available number.

 

Once we’ve named our .pst file and told Outlook where to save it, we can click OK. Then we’ll see the last part of the wizard (pictured below).

The first field in this screen will confirm where you’re saving the file to. (You can’t change the location from this screen; you must cancel out of the window and start the wizard over again.) In the second field, you can type in the name for your new file; by default it will say Personal Folders. (This is the name that will appear in the folder list.) In the third field, Outlook will list what file type you’re using.

 

The second set of fields in this window is a series of radio buttons allowing you to choose encryption for this file. It is recommended that you leave this option at Compressible Encryption (which is the default choice) to minimize problems.

 

Last but not least, you can set a password for your Outlook data file. If you leave the field blank, no password will be set. Be careful, because if you set a password and then forget it, your data will be lost!

 

Once all the fields are complete, we can click OK to save our changes and create the file, or click Cancel to discard our settings.

 

If you do choose to create the file, you’ll see it appear in the folder list like this:

 

 

You may notice that the only item under this new Personal Folder is deleted items. You can create new folders under the new set of Personal Folders by clicking the File menu, choosing New, and clicking Folder. Remember that you can choose the item type in this window, allowing you to create folders for any item (such as calendar, contacts, mail, or journal).

 

Outlook will only add other folders to it if you set the option to have your new e-mail delivered to it. You can set this option by following these steps:

-       Click the Tools menu.

-       Click E-mail Accounts.

-       Click View or change existing e-mail accounts.

-       Click Next.

-       Click the drop-down labelled Deliver new e-mail to the following location and click your personal folder file.

-       Click Finish.

-       Click OK to the warning.

-       Close and re-open Outlook.