Outlook Express and Entourage maintain both database and message files with a particular quirk: when you delete something, the information stays in the file, but you can no longer access it from the app. The more activity you have in your email account, the larger these files are going to be. The database, for instance, contains email addresses from every mail you have sent and received, even if not in your address book, since the last compaction. If your hard drive is particularly full, and you are running a browser at the same time as these programs, stray code from the browser can also end up in the message file. If you ever read any of the MS news group postings, every post that you have read is in the message file. Eventually, the apps. will get to a point where they can no longer handle the bloated files: in one post at a Microsoft site, one user wrote that his message file was over 500MB, and he was wondering why the app. was so slow. He was lucky it hadn't exploded yet. The good thing about this is that if OE or Entourage has terminal problems or if you have deleted something in error, you can still access the message file through MS Word and retrieve your mail, though not the attachments. Just don't save the file in Word after you open it, of course, unless you are sure that OE or Entourage cannot open the message file any longer. In which case, simply save in Word and drag to another folder, and the app. will produce a new, empty message file and you start from scratch. To optimize and compact in both apps., hold down the option key at startup. OE will ask you if you want to do a simple optimization, click no to this first dialogue box, then it will ask you if you want to do the complex procedure. Entourage gives you one dialogue box where you click the choice of simple or complex. The difference between the two deals only with Hotmail (AFAIK): the first choice leaves the folder structure of Hotmail accounts in the app., the second choice erases them and downloads the folder structure from your web account. After having OE fatally crash several times, I take the precaution of doing a simple compaction about once a week. Now that I use Entourage, I do the same. AT the same time, I try to keep Entourage as slim as possible. Unless you require instant access to all your mail from the app., investigate one of the shareware archiving programs available on VersionTracker. You can choose from keeping running text files (SimpleText or Word), or for high volume accounts, individual text files that are arranged in folders accourding to date and time. For the average user, this buries the mail in too many folders, but for a business with high traffic, this might be a good solution. The SimpleText version is a smaller file than either OE/Ent proprietary form. If your running file exceeds SimpleText limits, you can convert to Word or use Writer (freeware, VersionTracker). -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Enter to win a FREE Titanium G4 PowerBook! -- | & CDRWs on Sale! | Save on Mac software -- Shop Software Outlet.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/software.outlet.html> Star Trek Collection: Movies 1-7 on VideoCD, $38.88 from CoolVCD <http://lowendmac.com/ad/coolvcd.html> - - - - - PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
