| If you're new to Outlook, you should use Unicode format. It's the future. When you upgrade from earlier versions of Outlook, the answer depends on your email habits. Do you correspond with people from other countries ? Do their messages often have question marks where text should be? If you answer either question with yes, you'll benefit from using Unicode format. Is your personal store more than 1GB or close to 2GB? Do you archive or delete attachments from messages to keep your mailbox from reaching 2GB? If you answer yes to either of these questions, you should use Unicode format. Do you use your personal store with older versions of Outlook? If you answer no, you should use Unicode format. Backward compatibility is the only reason not to use Unicode. By the same token, if you answered yes only to this question, stick with the Outlook97 “2002 format. You can use file management techniques such as archiving to keep your personal store small. If you answered yes to all three sets of questions, you should use Unicode and copy items to an Outlook97 “2002 format personal store or upgrade to Outlook 2003 on all of your systems. The benefits of using Unicode for foreign character support and large message store outweigh compatibility issues. You can always copy most items to an older format personal store if you need to. However, items that use Unicode characters won't be readable when copied to an Outlook97 “2002 PST. | 