Here's what he told us:

I get an email every workday that has the date as part of the heading and consists of a table of commodity names on the left and a set of price parameters reading across the top.

I would like to store the files in email. The key is to be able to extract and reformat the information and copy it into Excel 97. Can I do this if I get the email in Outlook or Outlook Express (cheaper is better).

Currently I am in Yahoo email and there seems to no way to do the above-I think I should switch to some form of Outlook. I can't get anywhere trying to deal with Yahoo.

Thanks for your help and advice. I can write simple macros in Excel.

The best method for sharing documents, both sending and receiving, is to send it as an attachment. This will allow the recipient to save the actual attachment as a file on their system and associate it with the appropriate program.

If the information is typed or pasted into the actual email, then it is actually part of the email itself and is associated with that particular email program.

Just as our reader Gary is experiencing, this limits the options for saving or editing the information. And to be able to do anything with the information, it would have to be copied and pasted into the program you need to use and then possibly reformatted.

The best approach for functionality and productivity is to request the originator to send the information as an attachment. This will allow the recipient to then save the attachment in Outlook by going to File->Save Attachment. There are a lot of other Outlook-related features you'll then be able to use as well.

There's also a non-Outlook option you might want to consider, and that's Gmail. Google offers a very large data store (2GB at last look) where you can store your messages. You might consider creating a new Gmail account just for your files, and send your messages into the Gmail account. There are some third-party hacks that will let you access your Gmail email messages just as if they were files, so you might then be able to get the information access you desire.

It sounds like you're looking for more of a database application though, rather than email. Think through the architecture of the application and implement something that's both reliable and simple.

Francine Otterson is the President of the San Diego Outlook User Group and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She has been in the IT industry for over 10 years, providing technical support, software customization solutions and training in corporate settings, and as a consultant. She balances her work around her daughter and husband in sunny San Diego, California.