Best Practise on Quick Access and Modification on Archived Email

[Gaufres]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: Exchange

Hi

I would like to know what the best practise on using archived email.

I have read <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/archive.html>.

After creating an archive identity such as yearly, 2008, 2009 and so on, is it OK to drag a new email from Exchange mailbox to the archive identity? In other word, can I keep modifying the archive identity (.mbox or .rge) file as I have new emails on my Exchange account?

Hope this makes sense..

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi,

an Entourage archive is not like an Outlook PST file, meaning that you
cannot simply add messages to it. If you want to create an archive file that
contains newer messages as well, you will have to import the archive into
Entourage so that it shows up as a regular folder in the folder list. You
can then drag the new messages into that folder, and when you are done, you
will have to export the folder as an archive again.

The archive feature in Entourage is not very flexible in that regard; be
sure to send your feedback to Microsoft by clicking on Help>Send Feedback
about Entourage.

 

[Diane Ross]

an Entourage archive

If you are referring to an archive Identity, yes. You can use "Switch
Identity" and add any new messages to this Identity.

In other word, can I keep modifying the archive identity (.mbox or .rge) file
as I have new emails on my Exchange account?

These are not easily modified as Michel explained.

 

[Gaufres]

Thanks for the clear explanation and prompt reply, Michel.

Just a curiosity, how are you managing your archived email if you use Entourage to archive them? How often do you create the archive identity? How do you categorise them, e.g., monthly, yearly, sender etc.

I didn't know about the feedback menu available. Thanks for telling me that. I will certainly send a feedback on this to Microsoft.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi,

I use local folders that regroup e-mails on a yearly basis, i.e. one folder
for 2007, one for 2008 etc. I regularly empty my various inboxes and special
folders by moving the messages to these archive folders. At the end of the
year, I clean up folders that are older than two years by exporting them as
..mbox files and deleting the local folders to free up space in the Entourage
database. The .mbox files are stored on my external hard drive. I only use
one identity; I rarely ever need to check e-mail messages older than two
years, so if I ever need to find an old message, I simply import the .mbox
file, check the message and then delete the imported folder again.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gaufres]

Hi Michel

I appreciate all of your advices on this. This is extremely helpful.

Kind regards,
Gaufres

 

[Gaufres]

Hi Michel

Can I ask you one more question about archiving emails yearly?

Is there a way of viewing or archiving emails automatically without losing the structure of sub folders?

I am studying on Custom View to remove old mail but the interface isn't the same as my Entourage version (2008).

How do you re-group emails on a yearly basis? Are you doing it manually creating the same folder structure every year? Then, drag email from inbox to the appropriated folder in the year?

I managed to verify the database and then exported as .rge file. However, how about if the user has a long email history such as 5 years and has never re-group into year category? Too bad - they have to shuffle their emails around manually?

Many thanks,
Gaufres

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Gaufres,

see inline for answers.

Is there a way of viewing or archiving emails automatically without losing the
structure of sub folders?

You can simply drag folders to the local folders on your computer. You can
then create an Entourage archive, which should preserve the folder
structure. Keep in mind, though, that once you have exported folders as
Entourage archive files and deleted them from your current database, you
will need to re-import them back into Entourage to view them. Also, none of
these procedures can be done automatically, at least not without the help of
AppleScript.

I am studying on Custom View to remove old mail but the interface isn't the
same as my Entourage version (2008).

How do you re-group emails on a yearly basis? Are you doing it manually
creating the same folder structure every year? Then, drag email from inbox to
the appropriated folder in the year?

Manually, yes, when cleaning out online folders on a regular basis (every
other month or so).

I managed to verify the database and then exported as .rge file. However, how
about if the user has a long email history such as 5 years and has never
re-group into year category? Too bad - they have to shuffle their emails
around manually?

It is not that difficult to create these folders and then use custom views
(in Entourage 2004) or saved searches (in Entourage 2008) to regroup all the
e-mail messages from a particular year. You can then simply drag the
messages into the appropriate folders. Keep in mind that Spotlight is
integrated into Entourage 2008, so even if you do not have every item sorted
properly, you should still be able to access it almost instantly via
Spotlight.