There are other ways to archive your old Entourage mail files; however, the following is what I did to get ready for the new year:
1. I already have a separate Entourage Identity called "Archived Mail 2001 to 2008.zip" with subfolders for each of the previous years. a. The first thing I did was to unzip the "Archived Mail 2001 to 2008.zip", then opened the folder, and changed the filename to "Archived Mail 2001 to 2009." b. Then from within the active Entourage I created a new subfolder called "Mail 2009." c. To stop Entourage from popping my mail while I was making changes, I turned OFF my network connection from the OS X menu bar. 2. I then used the standard Entourage tip to drag my current year 2009 "Inbox" and "Sent Items" to the desktop. This created two mbox format files. It takes a few minutes so please do not rush. 3. Now drag the two new mbox files into the newly created (Step 1.b) "Mail 2009" subfolder. Again, it takes a few minutes so do not be in a hurry. I then changed the filenames from Inbox and Sent Items to Inbox-09 and Sent Items-09. This change was to make them unique. 4. Check that these files are good copies of your current Inbox and Sent Items in the new Mail 2009 folder are correct. Check that they look like your current Inbox and Sent Items. If not correct, repeat steps 2 and 3 until you get it right. Save the two files on your desktop for later use (in step #7 below). You may want to skip this step if you have a large database file. Mine is not that large and all it does is give you instant access to the previous mail. Shortly after the first of the year I delete this folder because I already have the previous database in the archived identity. 5. Once you are satisfied with step 4, open your primary Inbox and use the "Select All" and Delete Key to create fresh file that will contain your new 2010 mail. Do the same thing with your Sent Items file. Sometimes they may be sent to the Deleted Items so you may have to delete the files in the Deleted Items folder. This step is important to give you a clean file for the new year as the primary user. 6. After you finish the above, you may want to consider rebuilding the database by starting Entourage with the Option key held down. Diana Ross does not recommend this step unless it is necessary. The cool thing about this procedure and the reason I use it is I have almost instant access to the previous year mail files. 7. Last year I created a new Entourage identity called Archived Mail 2001 to 2008 and it contained mail folders from my old Eudora mail and separate folders for 2002 to 2008 for Entourage mail. To add 2009 to this identity I logged in as a the "Archived Mail 2001 to 2009" user and created a new subfolder for 2009; and then dragged in the the two files from desktop to the new 2009 Mail folder and change the names, like in step #3. 8. I then changed identity back to my primary identity and double checked that everything was working correct. I now have two versions of my 2009 Mail. One is archived in a separate identity and one is in the 2009 Mail subfolder in my primary user account. This will give me almost instant access for easy referral to 2009 mail. When I decide I no longer need the near instant access, I will delete the 2009 Mail folder from my primary user folder. I will always be able to go back by changing to the "Archived Mail 2001 to 2009" identity. I have probably made this sound too complicated. It is not! All I did was save and store the old mail to start the new year with a clean mail file. Entourage is snappy with the clean file and will be even better when I decided to delete the new "2009 Mail" sub folder. Mail from prior years is archived under another identity and mail for 2009 and 2010 are active. The other advantage is once saved the Time Machine will only have to deal with changes to current year mail. The archived user file will not change and this should help. You can always use the TM to go back to your saved primary user database. Please let me know if this posting is of interest. There may be a better way to archive mail but I have not found it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Dick -- YouTalk mailing list List address: [email protected] List information: http://entourage.mvps.org/support_options/list.html List moderator: [email protected], [email protected] To unsubscribe: mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe
