May 1, 2010

Since I get a lot of questions on importing and exporting from Outlook, and Outlook Express, I decided that this month we will cover the basics.

GENERAL INFORMATION: Unlike Outlook Express or some other mail programs who store their contact information in the Windows Address Book and the messages in individual folders, Outlook stores everything in one file, usually called outlook.pst.  In order to locate the pst file, you can start up Windows Explorer or select Search on the Start button, then search for *.pst.  This will give you the physical location of the pst file on your hard drive.

To view importing and exporting from Outlook, continue.  To view importing/exporting from Outlook Express, click here.

Click here to import information into Outlook.

To export from outlook, go to File, Import and Export.

Now, click on Export to a file, then click Next.

If you are going to be importing the information back into Outlook, I suggest you select a Personal Folder File (pst).  If, for instance, you are wanting to export the contact list into another program, you may want to select Comma Separated Values (DOS) since this will make the import more successful.  Now, click Next.

In the next box, select the item(s) you want to export.  You can pick messages, calendar, contacts, etc.  Be sure to check the box if you want the subfolders copied also.

In the next screen you can decide where to save the file and what name to give it.  When you click Finish the next box will appear.

To complete the save process, enter a password if desired, then click OK.  You can then use the exported file to move the data into another Outlook program.

To import data into outlook, go to File, Import and Export.

I'm not going to cover every scenario here, so we'll stick with importing data from another pst file.  Common sense will prevail as far as importing data from the other types of files.  Select Import from another program or file, then click Next.

Now, select the type of file, then click Next.

Browse to the location and select the file you want to import from, then click Next.

You can now select the items in the file which you want to import.  You can also select where you want the data to go, where to import to, etc.

To export items from Outlook Express, click here.

To import from Outlook Express contacts, remember that with this program, your contacts are not in OE, rather they are stored in the Windows Address Book, they are just shown in OE.  If you want to import contacts from another Windows Address Book file, go to File, Import, Address Book.

In the Look in box, select the folder the file is in and click Open.

The contacts will then be imported into the Windows Address Book and also into OE.  If you are importing from another program, a comma delimited file, or another type of file, instead of selecting Address Book, as shown above, select Other Address Book.  You can then select the appropriate file type and import those contacts.

Mail in OE is stored in folders with the same names as they appear in the program, I.E., Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, etc.  The exact folder they are stored in your computer will depend on how Windows ended up labeling the folder.  The best way to find out where the files are is to search for inbox.dbx and see what the folder name is.  Your folder will not be exactly as shown below.  If you are going to import messages from an OE set of files, you will need to know the folder location of the files you are importing from.

Go to File, Import, Messages.

Select the file type, in this example, I'm using Outlook Expreess, so I select Microsoft Outlook Express 6.

In the next screen, you need to select Main Identity, then click OK.

You will now be able to choose what items you want to import, then click Next.

You will now get a confirmation screen and the messages will appear in OE.

You can either export your contacts to Microsoft Outlook, or a comma delimited file.  You can't export as a Windows Address Book file.  To export contacts from Outlook Express, go to to file, Export, Address Book.

You can now select the method you want.

You can only export messages to Microsoft Outlook or a Microsoft Exchange server.  If you just want to backup your messages or copy them to another computer, you can just copy the files in the OE folder and use them.  To export messages, go to File, Export, Messages.  You will now get a message explaining the options.

If Outlook is installed and setup, you click OK to select that profile to export the messages into.

You can now select which messages you want to export into Outlook.  When you click OK, the messages will be exported to Outlook.

 If you have any questions or comments, click