Backing up Outlook Data

Most people don't think of it until they learn it the hard way. They have not backed up their Outlook data! Fortunately, this task is relatively easy and can be done on a regular basis.

I have a great go-to website for teaching Outlook back up step by step, and making it pretty painless.

The data you want to back up includes everything from your Deleted Items folder to your Sent Items folder, and everything inbetween. The folders are kept alphabetically. This will include any folders that you create to make your mail more organized, and used for filing purposes.

Note that the Deleted Items folder is not recommended as a filing folder or a holding folder. These items are "trash" and this folder should be emptied regularly.

My favourite links for Outlook back ups are as follows:

Outlook Back Up and Restore

Back Up Your Outlook Account Settings

Outlook Files and Settings Guide

You can even recover items you've deleted if you're using Outlook Personal Folders:

Recover Deleted Items

So you see there are many options for ensuring that your important Outlook data is kept up to date and always available, even if you have a hard drive crash.

Out of Office

If you are going to be out of the office for a period of time, say for an afternoon or longer, it is customary to create an Out of Office message (OOF) so that your senders know that you are currently not available.

If you are in an Exchange environment (connect to a Microsoft Exchange mail server):

• In the Inbox, click the Tools Menu, and then click Out of Office Assistant.
• Click I am Currently Out of the Office.
• Type the message you want to send to others while you are out, in the text box.
• Click OK when finished.

If you are a home user, you can use Out of Office but you need to leave Outlook turned on and running in your absence.

If this is not feasible, log onto your webmail and create the away message. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should also have this feature available and almost all of them have a webmail feature on their website.