Working with Folders

Outlook stores all of your items in a single message store unless you added additional personal folder stores. To make it easier to manage your messages, you can create additional folders to supplement the default ones created by Outlook. Using the Outlook 972002 PST format, there is a limit of approximately 65,000 items and folders per folder, whereas a Unicode format PST can contain an unlimited number of items and folders.

Using some folders to file your messages helps improve message management, but when you have too many folders and subfolders, it's often harder to find your messages. How many is too many? If you have so many that you can't remember some of their names or where you created them, you probably need to consolidate your folders. You can move some of the folders to a new personal store and reduce the number of subfolders in subfolders .

I like to limit my mailbox to about 2030 mail foldersone for each project I'm involved in and several for general organizational use. I also try to avoid making subfolders more than two folders deep. It's too much work to expand a lot of subtrees when I'm looking for a folder.

Soon after a project ends, I move the folders and messages into a personal store for archiving. I name the personal store after the project and store copies of Word documents or other files in the personal store along with all messages, copies of contacts, calendar events, and journal entries.

Task: Create New Folders

Outlook includes one folder of each Outlook item type when you create a mailbox PST. Although you can use just one folder for your mail, most people like to add additional folders and create a filing system for their messages and other Outlook items. When you add a second PST, Outlook includes just the Deleted Items folder and you need to add folders to it. Don't move items to the top level of a new PSTadd folders and create a file system.

1. Right-click on any folder and choose N ew Folder to add an additional folder (see Figure 18.9). By default, new folders are added to the folder you right-clicked on to select New Folder, but you can select a location from the Create New Folder dialog or you can move the folder at any time.

   Figure 18.9. Use the Create New Folder dialog to add new folders to your message store.

   

2. Choose a folder type for your folder from the F older Contains menu. You can choose from any of the Outlook folder types: Calendar, Contacts, Mail and Post, Journal, Tasks , or Notes.

3. Choose a location for your folder. If you don't select a folder, your new folder is added as a subfolder in the folder you last selected. Any folder type can be a subfolder of any other folder type. For example, I often add a tasks folder as a subfolder of a project folder.

4. Click OK to add your new folder your message store, and right-click and choose Add t o Favorite Folders if you'd like.

You can add as many folders as you want to your message stores, although too many folders especially when you use a lot of subfoldersoften makes it harder to find your messages.

Task: Moving Messages and Folders

When you need to move or copy the contents of a folder between message stores, move or copy the entire folder:

1. Select the folder you want to move.

2. Right-click and choose M ove folder name , where folder name is the name of the selected folder.

3. Select the new folder or personal store from the Move Folder list (see Figure 18.10). If you need to create a new folder, click the N ew button.

   Figure 18.10. The Mo v e Folder and C opy Folder list enable you pick a folder or message store to move or copy folders to. You can also drag and drop folders to move them or press Ctrl and drag to copy. When you right-click and drag, you have the option to Mo v e or C opy your folders.