Another way to manage your Outlook data is to import or export it. Exporting in particular is a great way to back up your Outlook data periodically.

 

First, let’s go through exporting Outlook data. Exporting your data doesn’t remove it from Outlook; it just makes a copy of whatever items you select to another file. To start the wizard, click the File menu and click Import and Export. This window will appear:

 

 

Right now, the only option we’re concerned with is the first one: Export to a file. So, we’ll select that option and click Next.

 

Our next screen allows us to pick what kind of file we want to create. Here are some popular types:

 

-       Comma Separated Values: Creates a spreadsheet for DOS or for Windows. This is mainly used when exporting contacts or calendar items.

-       Microsoft Access: Exports your data as a database using .mdb format. This is mainly used for contacts.

-       Microsoft Excel: Exports your data as a spreadsheet using .xls format. This is mainly used for contacts.

-       Personal Folder File: Exports your data as a .pst file.

-       Tab Separated Values: Exports your data as a text file using DOS or Windows standards.

 

Once we’ve picked the file type and clicked Next, we can choose which folders we want to export.

Just click on a folder to select it. If your screen looks like the sample on the right, click the plus sign to see the folders in that set of personal folders. For most file types, we can only pick one sub-folder; we can’t pick the main Personal Folders. The only exception is when you’re exporting .pst files, like we are in the sample. You can export multiple folders by choosing Personal Folders, but you MUST check the Include Subfolders box at the bottom, otherwise nothing will be exported!

 

Once you’ve selected the folder to export, click Next. In this window, we can click the Browse button to give your file a name and to tell Outlook where we’ve saved it. Once we’ve entered that information, your next step depends on what type of file we’ve created. If we’ve created a .pst file, we just need to click Finish. Then, we can set options for our personal folder like we did when we created a new one.

 

If you’ve chosen any other type of file, you’ll have a next button in the browse window. When you click Next, you’ll have this window:

 

 

The large white box will summarize what task we’re about to perform. If necessary, you can click the Map Custom Fields button to give the fields in your data source specific names in the new file. (We’re not going to cover these options in detail as they vary widely depending on the application being exported to.) Normally, you don’t need to use these options; you can just click Finish to create your file.

 

What do you do if you have a file that has been exported from Outlook or from another program? You can use the other half of the wizard we just talked about: the import wizard.

 

Let’s go back to the window we saw when we clicked on the File menu and clicked Import and Export.

 

 

The import options are a bit more extensive than the export options. From this window, you can choose to import a specific type of file (like a .vcs or .vcf file); import from another program or file type; or import account settings, mail, or addresses from another program (such as Outlook Express, Netscape, or Lotus Notes).

We’re going to focus on the “Import from another program or file” option as this will give us the most choices. If we click this option and click Next, here’s the list of programs and file types we can import from:

 

 

Although there are many options listed here, we’re going to focus on importing a personal folder file. When you choose that option and click next, you’ll have the option to browse to the file like this: 

 

You can also tell Outlook what to do if it finds that items in this .pst file are already in Outlook: replace the items in Outlook with items imported, allow the duplicates to be created, or do not import duplicates at all.

 

Once we’ve selected our file, we can click next to finalize the import.

 

 

With the first window, we can choose which folder of the .pst file we want to import. (If we want to import everything, just make sure personal folders is selected.) Then, check the Include Subfolders box to import any folders underneath the folder you’ve selected. (Again, this is essential when importing personal folders files.) Last, you can choose to import items into the folder you currently have selected in Outlook, or you can import items into the same folder in your personal folders file.

 

Once you click Finish, Outlook will begin the import process. This may take a few moments depending on how much data you have, but your part is done!