Managing Your Outlook Account

The maximum amount of space allotted in your Exchange account is 500MB. While space can be taken up by e-mails themselves; it is usually the case that much of this space is being taken up by attachments to e-mails. It is important to identify where the most space is being used and then to clean up your Exchange account. There are several ways to do this:

Separating Attachments

As noted, while e-mails themselves can take up space, it is often that the most space on your Exchange account is being taken up by attachments to e-mails. It is important to take a closer look at these e-mails and attachments to see if it is necessary to keep them. Do not simply delete all e-mails. Instead, sort through for relevant content. If you do not need to keep the attached item and e-mail together, separate them and save the attachment on the appropriate LAN drive if an electronic version is needed.

If you were to be out of the office unexpectedly, there may be a situation where others in your department need access to data that you have been storing in your Exchange account. This data should be saved to a file server (S: drive). There are a few methods for saving e-mails to the server:

Save the attachment to S: drive
- To do this, open the e-mail containing the attachment
- Highlight the listed attachment
- Right-click on the highlighted attachment
- Select "Save As…" from the drop-down list
- Save the attachment to your S: drive

Additional Option: Use Windows Explorer and navigate to the directory and folder that you want to store the document. Then go to the e-mail and drag the attachment to Windows Explorer to the directory/folder. You may want to edit the message to add a notation where the attached file is located. For example: S:\BS\Common\Users\... \xxxxxx.doc.

Remove the attachment from e-mail message

For attachments on the Attachments line at the top of the e-mail:

To do this, open the e-mail containing the attachment
Highlight the listed attachment
Right-click on the highlighted attachment
Select "Remove" from the drop-down list

For attachments in the message body:

Click on the attachment
Press the Delete key

Drag and drop the message with an attachment onto server as an .msg file.

To do this, go to your Inbox or to another Outlook folder containing the e-mail
From the list of e-mails, highlight the e-mail you've chosen
Click and hold on the highlighted e-mail, do not release finger from the mouse
Drag email onto your server to a file path you have already opened in Windows Explorer
Release finger from the mouse
Now the file name will be the Subject of the e-mail
Once this e-mail is saved in file services, delete the message from your Exchange account

*For this option, Microsoft Outlook is necessary. If you were ever to change e-mail packages, this dragging and dropping would not be an option.

Save e-mail if necessary as .rft, txt, or .htm

Cleaning up From Your Folder List

There are a couple of ways that Outlook will allow you to view the size, as well as other aspects, of all the folders you have.

A) Viewing Folder Size

This first option allows you to view the size of all of the folders you have.

Once in Outlook, go to your tool bar
On the tool bar, select the GO menu
From the Go menu, select Folder List
There should now be a link in the bottom left-hand corner in your Folder List called Folder Sizes

Upon clicking Folder sizes, you will see the following data box:

Here you have the ability to view subfolders, size, and total size. Your account should hold no more than 500 MB, but as you can see on the above data box, the sizes of folders are all listed in KB. There are 1000 KB in 1 MB. To find out how many MB you are holding from the KB listed, simply divide the number of KB one folder currently holds by 1000.

For example, the first folder listed in the above data box holds 663 KB. If we divide 663 by 1000 we have .663. This means that particular folder size is .663 MB.

This option allows you to view which folders have the highest volume. From this point you can look further into the folders with the highest volume and begin cleaning up. Be sure to focus your cleanup efforts where the greatest impact will be made. This will clear the most space in the least amount of time.

B) Viewing your Large Mail Folder from your Folder List

This option helps you to view only your largest folders.

In your folder list, look for Search Folders on the left-hand side
Click on Search Folders
- Three folders will appear below: For Follow Up, Large Mail, and Unread Mail
Click Large Mail

Your largest documents will appear. There are different levels of large documents that you may work with.

Large Mail - message size 100-500KB
Very Large Mail - message size 500KB-1MB
Huge Mail - message size 1-5 MB
Enormous Mail - messages greater than 5 MB

Now you have the ability to arrange by sender, subject, received, and folder location. To arrange your mailbox according to size, click on the column title "Size" to sort in either ascending or descending order.

*However, you will only be able to arrange by size using this method if your reading pane is on the bottom or turned off. If your reading pane is located on the right side, click at the top where it reads "Arranged By". A drop-down list will appear with options for you to arrange your folders. We recommend that you arrange by size.

Using Mailbox Clean-up that is available in Outlook

Using this alternative, you can manage the size of your mailbox as well customize the methods of cleanup that are available.

On the tool bar select the Tools menu
Select Mailbox Cleanup from the Tools Menu. The following data box will appear:

Your first option with the Mailbox Cleanup is to "View Mailbox Size". When you click on this button, the Folder Size data box that was discussed earlier will appear. Again, this allows you to view all subfolders, size, and total size.

Your second option with the Mailbox Cleanup is to find items of a certain size or from a certain time period. To more easily manage your mailbox, we suggest that under this option you choose only the "Find Items Older Than…." option as opposed to the "Find Items larger than…" option. We feel the “older than” option is more user-friendly.

Click on the circle to the left of "Find items older than…"
Choose the number of days from which the items you want to see are older than
Click Find
A data box will appear showing you all items that are in your mailbox older than the suggested days

From this point, you can review your oldest documents and decide whether or not you need to be holding on to them or deleting them.

Your third option with the Mailbox Cleanup is to Automatically Archive folders to your computer. However, this option is NOT to be used as Auto Archiving saves files to your hard drive and we are not to save files to the hard drive per the Business Services security requirements. You are not to use this option!

Your fourth option with the Mailbox Cleanup is to empty your deleted items folder. Even though you have deleted certain items from your Exchange account, they are still being stored in a Deleted Items folder. Emptying that folder will delete those items and clear a great deal of space. Mailbox Cleanup gives you two options:

You can click the "Empty" button on the right of the data box to delete all items in the Deleted Items folder.
You can click on View Deleted Items size. A data box will appear showing you the size of your Deleted Items folder.

Clear Space by Cleaning out Your Sent Items Folder

Often we focus on our inboxes, but your sent items folder may also be taking up a great deal of space. Clearing out this folder will create more room.

Click on your Sent Items folder from your Folder List
Your sent items will appear on the right side of your screen
Right-click on the item to be deleted
A drop-down list will appear
Choose "Delete"

Empty Out Your Junk Mail Folder

A lot of space can also be taken up by the mail that has accumulated in your junk mail folder. It is important to be clearing this folder.

Right-Click on your Junk Mail folder from your Folder List
Select Empty "Junk E-mail" folder from the list that appears
A box will appear asking you if you want to permanently delete all items from that folder
Select Yes

Empty Out Your Deleted Items Folder MANUALLY

Earlier we discussed how to empty your Deleted Items folder using the Mailbox Cleanup option. You also have the option of emptying your Deleted Items folder manually.

Click on your Deleted Items folder from your Folder List
On the tool bar, Select the Tools Menu
Select Empty "Deleted Items" Folder
A box will appear asking you if you want to permanently delete all items from that folder
Select Yes

Additional Option: Right click on the Deleted Items folder and select "Empty Deleted Items Folder"

Remember, the Limit for Your Exchange Account is 500MB.

Visit our Zone Home page, under Policies and Procedures/Tip of the Day, http://www.purdue.edu/hrfzone/Policies_and_Procedures/TipOfTheDay.htm to find information about the following:

Attachments (where to save)
Delivery and Read Receipts (turn them off if possible)
Rich and HTML messages (turn off)
Regularly empty your deleted items
Tools, options, other. Place a check in the box next to "Empty the Deleted items folder upon exiting"

Manage Outlook Calendar - This will provide instructions on how to delete old calendar items (http://www.purdue.edu/bscompt/Support/Tips/outlookcalendar/Welcome.html)

Archive E-mail Offline - If you have completed the above instructions and still need to clean up your e-mail account. This document will provide instructions on how to export a .pst file, burn the files to a CD and how to retrieve the files after they have been burnt to a CD (Exporting a .pst file.pdf).

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