Reader Stephan Helgesen writes:

Thank heavens you're there. I use Outlook 2007. I have six separate email accounts. All are set up in Outlook, but all the email messages get routed to the same inbox. How do I separate them so they go into a separate email inbox for each address? (I downloaded 400 emails from a Web-based location the other night and now I can't find them!). Yikes!

Turns out, this is a pretty easy problem to solve. First, our apologies to Stephan -- we're here, but it did take us four months to get around to answering his question. We get a never ending stream of reader questions and can only answer a few each month.

So, how do you deal with the issue of multiple identities? Well, certainly one approach would be to consolidate. Financial analysts recommend only having one or two credit cards and only one or two bank accounts, and that's good practice for email. If you really think about it, you probably don't need six separate email accounts. I know you think you do, but you really don't.

Scolding over. Now, let's be helpful.

Two options
There are two approaches Stephan can take to keep his accounts separate in Outlook. The first involves using rules to look at the send-to address in the header, and dump messages intended for one email account into one folder, messages for another email account into another folder, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

The second solution is to set up separate email accounts in Outlook. You do this by opening the Mail control panel and selecting Accounts, and then setting up all your connection data for each account. This will give you a completely separate inbox, contacts, tasks, calendar, and so forth for each account.

Benefits of each
Each approach has its benefits and disadvantages.

The rules approach is likely to be less reliable and may dump mail in folders that you don't expect. The separate account approach may be troublesome if you're using a hosted Exchange service, BlackBerry, or some other mobile email access service, because you might get charged on a per-account basis.

On the other hand, if you create separate accounts in Outlook, you can also send mail using separate account identities, so when Bruce Wayne sends email, it comes from Bruce, but when Batman sends email, the return address is from Batman. Secret identites stand a better chance of staying secret.

It really depends on your style, but the first thing I'd recommend no matter which approach you take, is to trim down some of those email accounts. I mean, do you really need a separate email account for the Bat Cave and for the Batmobile?

David Gewirtz is the author of How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The Emails Gone? For more than 20 years, he has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com and you can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.