Data transfer is a two-way street, of course, and any discussion of how to take information out of Outlook 2007 would be incomplete without a discussion of how to bring information back in as well. Far more options are available for bringing information in than for sending information out.
The process of importing data into your Outlook 2007 message store is the same regardless of whether you’re importing information into a personal folder or an Exchange Server mailbox. You begin the process by identifying exactly what type of information you want to import and whether Outlook 2007 can properly access and import the data.
The next sections examine some examples of importing information into Outlook 2007. To begin the import process for any of the examples discussed in these sections, use the Import And Export Wizard.
When upgrading an e-mail system to Outlook 2007, you can often save time and avoid configuration problems by importing the Internet mail settings from the previous system. This process does not bring over any messages or addresses; it simply transfers any existing Internet e-mail account information to the current Outlook 2007 profile. This option works only if the computer on which Outlook 2007 is installed had previously been using a different e-mail client, such as Outlook Express or Eudora.
To start the wizard to import your settings, choose File, Import And Export. Select Import Internet Mail Account Settings, and then click Next. The wizard is very straightforward, taking you through all the steps of verifying and reestablishing the account. Fields are filled with information taken from the detected settings; you can modify them as needed during the import process. After you have imported the information, the new service will often require you to exit, log off, and restart Outlook 2007 before it will be active. At that point, you should be able to receive and send Internet e-mail through Outlook 2007.
In addition to importing Internet e-mail configuration settings, as just discussed, the other step involved in migrating e-mail data to Outlook 2007 is to bring in any address lists or saved messages that were stored in the previous system. To import an existing message store, follow these steps:
Choose File, Import And Export. When the wizard starts, select Import Internet Mail And Addresses, and then click Next.
On the Outlook Import Tool page of the wizard, specify the program from which you are migrating the data. After you select the application, you must specify what to import: messages (Import Mail), addresses (Import Address Book), or both. Then click Next.
On the Import Addresses page, specify how Outlook 2007 should handle duplicates. The default entry, Allow Duplicates To Be Created, can create a bit of cleanup work (deleting the duplicate entries that might be created for certain contacts), but it guards against accidental information loss from overwriting the wrong contact entry. Replace Duplicates With Items Imported causes Outlook 2007 to overwrite any existing contacts in Outlook 2007 with matching items from your other mail program. Select Do Not Import Duplicate Items if you want Outlook 2007 to skip any duplicate addresses.
Click Finish. The wizard runs the import and then displays the Import Summary dialog box. If the import has gone well, you’ll see an indication that all the messages have been imported. If you see that only a portion of the total messages have been imported, you’ll know that a problem occurred and not all the information was transferred.
In the Import Summary dialog box, click Save In Inbox if you want to save the summary message to your Outlook Inbox folder. Click OK if you just want to close the dialog box.
One of the handiest ways to share contact information is by using vCards, which are a form of electronic business card. When you receive a vCard from someone, you can import the card into your Contacts folder for later use. Start the Import And Export Wizard, select Import A vCard File (.vcf), and then click Next. Browse to the directory where you saved the .vcf file, select the file, and then click Open. The file will be imported as a new contact entry in your Contacts folder.
Note
For details about using vCards to share contact information, see "Sharing Contacts" in Chapter 18.
Numerous options, including iCalendar and vCalendar files, are available to users who want to share calendar information. Although they’re used for much the same purpose, iCalendar and vCalendar work in different ways.
Note
iCalendar is a newer standard that is gradually replacing vCalendar. Both are still commonly used, however.
You use iCalendar to send calendar information out across the Web to anyone using an iCalendar-compatible system. Users who receive an iCalendar meeting invitation simply accept or decline the meeting, and the information is automatically entered into their calendars. An import process is generally not necessary.
In contrast, you use vCalendar files much as you use vCards: they allow you to create a meeting and send it out as an attachment to other attendees. Attendees can then double-click the attachment or use the import process to bring this meeting into their schedules. If necessary, users can also import iCalendar meetings the same way.
Importing iCalendar and vCalendar files is easy. Choose File, Import And Export to start the Import And Export Wizard. Select Import An iCalendar (.ics) Or vCalendar File (.vcs), and then click Next. Select the file, and then click OK to complete the import.
You’ve now seen most of the common import options. However, you’ll also occasionally encounter situations in which you might need to import other types of information, such as third-party data, text files, and so on. Perhaps the most important of these other possibilities is importing information from another .pst file. This could involve bringing back information from an archive, restoring lost messages from a backup, or even completing the process in the example discussed earlier, in which you need to give a new sales rep copies of all messages sent to or received from Wingtip Toys. If three or four other employees had all exported messages to .pst files, the easiest option for the new rep would be to import the messages back into his or her own message store for easy access.
The following steps describe the process of importing from an existing .pst file. Keep in mind that other file import options are similar, although the particular data and formatting of each file will dictate certain changes in the import process.
To import from an existing .pst file, perform the following steps:
Start the Import And Export Wizard. Select Import From Another Program Or File, and then click Next.
In the list of file types, select Personal Folder File (.pst).
Browse to the .pst file you want to import. (If you want to import multiple .pst files, you must import each one separately.) Specify how to handle duplicates on the same page, and then click Next.
Note
As mentioned earlier, allowing Outlook 2007 to create duplicates minimizes the risk of overwriting data, but it does increase the size of the store. If you’re importing a number of .pst files that might have overlapping data (if many recipients were copied on the same messages, for example), it’s often better to avoid importing duplicates.
On the Import Personal Folders page of the wizard, shown in Figure 32-6, select the folders to import—either the entire store or only a particular folder or set of folders.
The wizard allows you to filter the data you’re importing the same way you filter exported data. Click Filter to open the Filter dialog box, and then add any filters you need.
Specify the folder into which the data should be imported.
Click Finish to begin the import.
Note
Our fictional sales rep could create a subfolder named Wingtip under the Inbox and then select that folder before starting the Import And Export Wizard. Note that by choosing to import only from the .pst file’s Inbox and selecting Import Items Into The Current Folder, the sales rep could bring all the messages from the .pst file into his or her message store without flooding the Inbox with old Wingtip information. Creating subfolders for importing and exporting can be a good way to keep track of where information is coming from and what you are sending out.