Reducing identity file size

[Paul Adams]

Dear All,

How do I go about reducing the size of my identites file in Office 2004
for Mac?

I've deleted all my junk mail, emptied my trash and even stripped all
my sent mail of attachements but it doesn't seem to make any
difference!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi there,
that's correct: even though you delete items (such as large attachments, or
old calendar entries), the Entourage database does not shrink, i.e. the file
size remains the same. This is for purposes of stability, if I remember
correctly; anyway, let's say you have an Entourage database of 1,2GB, and
you delete e-mail attachments which amount to 0,5GB. Theoretically, your
database size should now be 0,7GB (1,2GB-0,5GB), but you will notice that
the size remains 1,2GB. However, that seemingly useless space will be reused
in the future, so if you receive new e-mails with attachments, Entourage
will use the space you managed to free by deleting older attachments (0,5GB)
to store the new ones, and the database will remain 1,2GB until all of the
freed disk space has been occupied. So it's not necessarily bad that the
database size doesn't change, but if you're really desperate to reclaim the
space occupied by Entourage's partially "empty" database, quit Entourage and
hold down the Option key the next time you launch it. The database utility
will launch, and it will offer you, among others, the option to compact your
database. Do that, and once the utility has done its work, you should see
that the new database size is considerably smaller. By the way, the process
of compacting your database will result in the creation of a backup
identity, which you can delete afterwards. Just make sure you delete the
correct (i.e. the older) database; but then again, it should have a date
stamp, so it should be fairly easy to find.
Sorry for giving such a lengthy answer, but I thought you might find it
interesting to know why Entourage behaves the way it does. If anything I've
written doesn't make sense, please post back.

Michel

 

[Tom Stiller]

Dear All,

How do I go about reducing the size of my identites file in Office 2004
for Mac?

I've deleted all my junk mail, emptied my trash and even stripped all
my sent mail of attachements but it doesn't seem to make any
difference!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Start Entourage while holding the "Option" key. When prompted, select
"Typical Rebuild". When the rebuild completes, discard the "old"
database and cache files.

 

[Paul Adams]

That's great.

Thanks a lot to both of you.

Paul.

 

[Larry Robinson]

Michael: thanks for the explanation. Question: how do I transfer all of
my emails, contacts, etc. from an identity in Entourage on computer A (work
computer) to an identity in Entourage on computer B (home computer)?

Thanks! larry

 

[Michel Bintener]

Your Entourage data is located inside ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office
2004 Identities. Copying that folder from one computer to another (make sure
you copy it into the same folder on your target computer) will transfer that
identity; just make sure you don't inadvertently delete your home identity.
If you want to have two different identities, i.e. your home identity and
your work identity, make sure both identity folders have different names,
and then use the Entourage>Switch Identity menu from within Entourage to
switch between identities. If, however, you only want to use one identity,
you can replace your home identity with your work identity.
I realise that this might not be that easy to understand, so if you have any
further questions, please post back.

Michel

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Start Entourage while holding the "Option" key. When prompted, select
"Typical Rebuild". When the rebuild completes, discard the "old"
database and cache files.

Or, as it's called in Office 2004, "Compact database".