Using Personal Folders
We introduced Personal Folders files (.pst’s) in our previous tip. In this tip we’ll show the first steps for using .pst’s to transfer Exchange items.
“Transferring Exchange Items Using Personal Folders”
For example, suppose you’re leaving the university or becoming a full-time student and you wish to move Exchange items from your office computer to an email server on your home computer. Personal Folders files (.pst files) created on your office computer can be put on a home machine thus retaining contacts, old email, and everything else. And, you can use .pst’s to move items out of Exchange and onto another storage medium like your own Y: drive folder, onto a CD, and so forth.
How would we copy items from Exchange into .pst’s? We might want to copy folders, items, or blocks of items.
One way to copy is to drag and drop with the Control Key held down. When you copy, you duplicate the item in another folder.
To move an item just drag and drop. When an item is moved, it is removed from one folder and placed in another.
When an item is copied or moved within Exchange, the ‘created’ date takes on the date of the copy or the move (today is April 6, 2002). However, when an item is copied or moved from Exchange to a .pst, the ‘created date’ stays as it was in Exchange at the time of the item’s creation.
Let’s copy the calendar in Folder List. Right click on “Calendar,” choose “Copy Calendar,”
Choose a Personal Folders file, and click on “OK”.
Likewise you can copy contacts, email, or any other folder.
Suppose we want to copy a block of calendar items (say the month of January) from Exchange to a .pst. Begin by creating a calendar folder in Personal Folders—
Right click on “Personal Folders” Select “New Folder”
Name it “January 2002″ Pull “Folder Contains” to “Appointment Items”
For our Exchange calendar we’ll need a “View” that is a list of the items in the calendar.
Select “View”, “Current View”, “By Category”
This leads to a list of all items in the calendar—just like a list of email messages.
Now order the items by Start date and block out all items with start date in January of 2002.
Now copy these items to a .pst.
The same can be done for other folders like “Contacts,” “Sent Items,” and so forth.
For assistance or comments call our HelpDesk at 85914 and remember the tip archive at the address shown here. Thank you.
