# Outlook and Access **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 21, 2001, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743 "2001-04-21T01:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743/21 "2001-04-23T17:26:50Z")
**slortar** , I’ve already exported all the messages and the address book. You’re right, it’s simple once you know where to look. The initial problem was that while the address book exported easily right away, the messages would NOT export when I clicked on File|Export|Messages. > [@](#): > > Now back up your messages. I’ve had bad experiences with doing it any other way than this, btw. Go to export–\>address book–\>text file. Be sure to put a check in all boxes, so you don’t lose any extra information. Save it somewhere you can find it later (ie when you back things up). How does exporting the address book export your messages? The way I wound up doing it - and this came from Microsoft’s site - was to go into Options|Maintenance and find out where the messages were being stored (something like Change Message Store - I don’t have OE on this machine, so I cannot check from here). Then you simply zip it up (as you said). But mine was a huge file - several megs - so I used AxMan to split it up for me. It was simple after that, too; after I brought the files over to the new computer and restored them into one zip file, I simply unzipped and imported, and everything came over beautifully. It really wasn’t complicated at all. But I still don’t see how exporting the address book is the same as exporting the messages themselves (and their folders), unless I’m misreading your post, which is possible. **AHunter** and others - thanks for the help. I’ll look at these posts a little more carefully when I get home from work. Yes, I don’t want to have to buy Access. It’s hundreds of dollars, and that’s about my budget for living. 🙂 Buying FileMaker would be fine, as long as it was indeed cheaper. Anyway, thanks all - will look at this shtuff when I get home. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743/22 "2001-04-23T17:48:42Z")
If you are getting rid of your old machine, why not make the old hard drive a slave on the new machine? You’ll get to keep all your programs with minimal effort and will even have a bit more storage room than you originally anticipated. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743/23 "2001-04-23T18:20:11Z")
A very good idea, fellow Deadhead, but I have already promised the CPU to someone who really needs a computer… ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743/24 "2001-04-23T19:54:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\* > How does exporting the address book export your messages? The way I wound up doing it - and this came from Microsoft’s site - was to go into Options|Maintenance and find out where the messages were being stored (something like Change Message Store - I don’t have OE on this machine, so I cannot check from here). Then you simply zip it up (as you said). But mine was a huge file - several megs - so I used AxMan to split it up for me. It was simple after that, too; after I brought the files over to the new computer and restored them into one zip file, I simply unzipped and imported, and everything came over beautifully. It really wasn’t complicated at all. But I still don’t see how exporting the address book is the same as exporting the messages themselves (and their folders), unless I’m misreading your post, which is possible. > \*\* Doh. It was a typo. Replace “messages” in that sentence with “address book.” I’ve found using the text file version saves incompatibility problems when wobbling between different versions of outlook express. No point in getting defensive. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743/25 "2001-04-23T22:13:56Z")
I’m not being defensive. Thanks for the help. But if you had read the entire thread, you would have known that particular problem had been solved already. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743/26 "2001-04-24T13:04:17Z")
Read? Read!! Surely you don’t think I’d stoop that far?! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-and-access/62743.md?page=1)