The best way to archive Entourage data in order to easily access it later?

J

JMTee

Hi, I'm new to this group so this topic might be discussed here
earlier. If so, I would appreaciate if someone could be able to point
me to the relevant information.

Anyway, my problem briefly: What is the best way to store your old
mails, projects and other data? I know that I can export data, drag
mailfolders to the desktop and use the Backup button in Project Centre
main view. Or I can periodically make a backup of my whole MUD folder.
All this is fine and well, but my problem is actually accessing the
archived data *later*. With .rge files it is quite cumbersome to first
import it and then later delete old stuff just in order to retrieve one
mail, for example. Also, the amount of data, especially mails, is huge
so it is very time consuming process. And if I make smaller .rge files,
I might have to import many of them before I can find the one mail I'm
looking for.

Everything works fine as long as I keep the data in 'Folders on My
Computer', but when I eventually need to remove older stuff in order to
get the database smaller, I don't know what would be the best way to do
this and still retain the possibility to have (at least reasonably)
quick access to the old data, too.

So, how are you people doing your backup/archiving? And more
importantly to me: how do you access your archived data? Any
suggestions would be appreciated.
 
D

Diane Ross

Hi, I'm new to this group so this topic might be discussed here
earlier. If so, I would appreaciate if someone could be able to point
me to the relevant information.

Anyway, my problem briefly: What is the best way to store your old
mails, projects and other data? I know that I can export data, drag
mailfolders to the desktop and use the Backup button in Project Centre
main view. Or I can periodically make a backup of my whole MUD folder.
All this is fine and well, but my problem is actually accessing the
archived data *later*. With .rge files it is quite cumbersome to first
import it and then later delete old stuff just in order to retrieve one
mail, for example. Also, the amount of data, especially mails, is huge
so it is very time consuming process. And if I make smaller .rge files,
I might have to import many of them before I can find the one mail I'm
looking for.

Everything works fine as long as I keep the data in 'Folders on My
Computer', but when I eventually need to remove older stuff in order to
get the database smaller, I don't know what would be the best way to do
this and still retain the possibility to have (at least reasonably)
quick access to the old data, too.

So, how are you people doing your backup/archiving? And more
importantly to me: how do you access your archived data? Any
suggestions would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Create a copy of your Identity and rename it. For example: Identity Fall
Quarter. When you want to access the data simply "Switch Identities" under
Entourage in the Menu bar.

After you have set up the archived Identity, create a custom view in your
default identity to show all emails up to the date you wish then delete from
the custom view. I like to keep some overlap of messages.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
J

JMTee

This sounds like an excellent idea, thanks. However, in order to make
this work - and not mess up the main identity - I guess I'll have to
fiddle with the account settings of the archive so that I don't get any
new messages in the archive identity, right? Would it be ok to just
empty all personal, server, public folder and directory
information/settings?

JMTee
 
D

Diane Ross

This sounds like an excellent idea, thanks. However, in order to make
this work - and not mess up the main identity - I guess I'll have to
fiddle with the account settings of the archive so that I don't get any
new messages in the archive identity, right? Would it be ok to just
empty all personal, server, public folder and directory
information/settings?
Click to expand...

The directions were for accounts "on your computer". I don't use exchange so
can't offer help on how this would work in an exchange environment.

You might consider moving the archived Identity to your computer.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
J

JMTee

I guess my explanation was a bit vague, sorry. I have the data which I
want to archive stored on my computer in 'Folders on My Computer', so
no problem there. However, I don't want to end up in a situation where
I operate in the 'archive identity' and remove for example all newer
data which I don't want to include in the archive, and Exchange
interprets my actions so that it removes the newer data from the server
also. In order to avoid this, I guess I have to disable all server
access settings in the archive identity.

Hmm... I don't know if the above made any more sense than before.
Anyway, I have an idea what I should do, so I'll try it out - after
making full backup first ;-)
 
H

Hal Kooistra

Go to Tools/Accounts and open the account in its new identity. In the
Account Settings pane uncheck the box labeled "Include this account in my
'Send and Receive' schedule." That should keep it from getting any new mail.

Hal
 
J

JMTee

Go to Tools/Accounts and open the account in its new identity. In the
Account Settings pane uncheck the box labeled "Include this account in my
'Send and Receive' schedule." That should keep it from getting any new mail.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that checkbox/option doesn't exist in Exchange account.
 
D

Diane Ross

I guess my explanation was a bit vague, sorry. I have the data which I
want to archive stored on my computer in 'Folders on My Computer', so
no problem there. However, I don't want to end up in a situation where
I operate in the 'archive identity' and remove for example all newer
data which I don't want to include in the archive, and Exchange
interprets my actions so that it removes the newer data from the server
also. In order to avoid this, I guess I have to disable all server
access settings in the archive identity.

Hmm... I don't know if the above made any more sense than before.
Anyway, I have an idea what I should do, so I'll try it out - after
making full backup first ;-)
Click to expand...

Entourage only works with one Identity at a time. Mail left on exchange will
be accessible from each user. It's not copied to your computer so access and
amount of mail does not change. Just think of using a browser to view your
mail via web access. Just because you change from one browser to another
does not alter the mail that is on the server.

If you want to archive your mail on the exchange server, then I would import
it to your computer in the archived identity.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
D

Diane Ross

If you want to archive your mail on the exchange server, then I would import
it to your computer in the archived identity.
Click to expand...

Just uploaded a new page on archiving exchange mail to your computer.
Download script to move all e-mail older than 60 days from your Exchange
account folders to archive folders within the "On My Computer" folder tree.

AutoArchive Exchange Account to "On My Computer"

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/autoarchive.html>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
D

dewalker

Using Mail Archiver X I archived my mail into Filemaker Pro. One can
also archive using an included database. I then exported my mail from
Entourage to a .rge file. It is quicker and easier to search in
Filemaker or the included database but I still have all the original
mail in a .reg file. I am not sure what to do with projects and other
data. Prior to Entourage I used Now Up To Date. One of the features I
liked in NUTD was the ability to export everything as a tab delimited
text file. I feel secure with this because it can always be opened
with a text editor or imported into probably any database. If NUTD
disappears from the planet I can still open the text file to see my
archive. It would be nice if Entourage could do this too.
 
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