Deleting Pictures from Outlook

[Sue Mackay]

I co-ordinated a huge transcription project of some 10,000 photographs of settler correspondence from TNA, each of about 700k, which involved e-mailing pictures to volunteer transcribers and receiving the transcriptions back in Word. As each section was completed I removed the original pictures from my PC and stored them on a laptop and back-up CDs, but pretty soon my weekly automatic backup of Outlook was telling me I couldn't fit it on to a 1Gb memory stick. I deleted the e-mails with the picture attachments from the Sent box, but they are obviously still in my system somewhere in some file within Outlook. Trouble is I can't find them! With a friend of my husband seemingly sending us daily 'funnies' of picture attachments as well, the PC is getting really slugglish, and I'd love to get Outlook back to something easily backed up to a memory stick. I have it configured to empty the Delete box on exit, but I have a feeling pictures are being retained in some temporary file. Otherwise I can't understand why the Outlook file is so huge.|help|

[Mike_E]

Hi Sue,

Outlook express or Outlook?

eben though you delete items, the file needs to be compressed. What happens is the entry is deleted, and in it's place is whats called "white space". By running a compact on the file it should remove the white space and get you running a little better.

Reduce the size of a Personal Folders file (.pst)

If you delete items from a Personal Folders file (.pst), the file is automatically compacted in the background when you’re not using your computer and Outlook is running. If you want to immediately reduce the size of the file, you can force a compaction. The procedure to compact the data file might take several minutes.

On the File menu, click Data File Management.
Click the data file that you want to compact, and then click Settings.
Click Compact Now. Note You do not have to exit Outlook after you compact a .pst file.

Reduce the size of the Offline Folder file (.ost)

Reducing the size of the Offline Folder file (.ost) (Offline Folder file: The file on your hard disk that contains offline folders. The offline folder file has an .ost extension. You can create it automatically when you set up Outlook or when you first make a folder available offline.) (javascript:AppendPopup(this,'IDH_redefOfflineFold erFile_1')) file may improve performance if you have deleted a large quantity of items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) (javascript:AppendPopup(this,'IDH_redefItem_2')). This procedure does not delete any items that are saved on the server.

Delete any items that you do not want to keep, and then empty the Deleted Items folder.
On the Tools menu, click Account Settings. http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/ms-help://MS.OUTLOOK.12.1033/OUTLOOK/content/blueup_CLV.gifThe Account Settings command is missing. (javascript:ToggleDiv('divExpCollAsst_IDAZ2WPC'))

The Account Settings command is on the Tools menu in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. If you are using an earlier version of Outlook, the following instructions do not apply. Use the Help that is included with that product. If the title bar of the program that you are using displays Microsoft Outlook Express, you are using a program that is not the same as Outlook. See Help in Outlook Express for assistance.
In the list, select Microsoft Exchange Server, and then click Change.
Click More Settings.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click Offline Folder File Settings.
Click Compact Now.

[Sue Mackay]

I'm using Outlook, not Outlook Express, but it's Version 2003. I already have it set to back up to a .pst file each week, but since I did the mammoth photo project it has been too big to fit on a 1Gb memory stick, so it's obviously not compacting automatically. Will see if I can find any Compact commands.

[Mike_E]

Hi Sue,

you need to tell it to compact Now, the menus are all similar, shall I screen shot my other PC with 2003 outlook? I'm now using the new Office 2007 Enterprise version, but still have the old PC which i could rev up.