Today's column was suggested by Don Flint, a reader from Brisbane, Australia. Before following these instructions you should speak with your administrator, as you may be required to follow a corporate retention policy which does not allow local storage. Also, storing messages or documents on your local computer often means they are not backed up and they won't be accessible if you login from another computer.

While Don wrote these instructions to deal specifically with profile space on a network server, it's a great idea for anyone who needs to archive messages but doesn't want to use autoarchive. I'm not a fan of Outlook's archiving, so I use a similar procedure to archive my messages from the previous year or completed projects.

Storing Outlook Email on your hard-disk, by Don Flint
If you frequently receive the administrator's "Profile out of Space" message for work related emails, the following steps will help keep your mailbox size under control.

[Editors note: Before using a PST stored locally, clear it with your administrator!]

The easiest way to make room in your message store is by deleting email. This can be done by archiving them, but if they are emails that you may have to refer back to in your management of projects, it can be time-consuming finding them again.

The following solution addresses this problem by having your emails automatically transferred out of your default message store to a PST on your local disk. At the end of the year the PST can be burnt onto a CD for permanent storage and later reference.

1. Start Outlook (if not already open).

2. If you don't have the folder list open, click on the View menu and click on Folder List.

3. Make a new email folder: Click on File->New->Personal Folders File (.pst).

4. In the File name box, type something meaningful like 2003_Emails.

5. Select the drop-down arrow in the Save-in box and then select your local drive and the directory where you would like your emails to be saved. You can create a new sub-directory called Emails on your local drive using the New Folder button or right click, New->Folder when in the File Open explorer.

6. Click Create button, and the Create Microsoft Personal Folders dialog opens.

7. Change the name Personal Folders to what you named your new PST (e.g., 2003_Emails) and leave the rest of the settings on the default.

Now you need to set-up your new inbox and sent-items folders:

8. Click on the new folder (2003_Emails) and then click on New (dropdown menu).

9. Move the mouse down and click on Folder.

10. Create new folders in the new PST, using the New->Folder menu or by right clicking on the new PST folder name.

11. Create new folders for your inbox and sent items and any other folders you may want.