In the 1994 film "The Hudsucker Proxy", Tim Robbins takes a job in the mail department of a huge corporation. He befriends an old-timer who has worked on mail-sorting for so long that he can throw each envelope into its pigeon-hole with great accuracy from several feet away and at great speed.

These days email has no need for envelopes or pigeon-holes and it travels between two points in the blink of an eye. Yet as fast as email is, there are things that can cause Outlook 2007 to run more slowly than it should. Here are a few things you can do to have it running as efficiently as that old-timer in the mail sorting department.

Become Unattached

You received an important email from a colleague but while he had your attention he decided to attach a selection of photographs of his trip to the Glastonbury Festival. You need to hang on to the mail but those photos are taking up a lot of space unnecessarily.

It is quite easy to dispose of the photos while saving the email. Open the email and right click the attachment that you want to get rid of (if there are several attachments, go to "File/Save Attachments /Save All Attachments"). This will store all of the attachments on your hard drive. Now right click again and select the "Remove" option. This will delete the attachment(s) but retain the email.

Shrink to Fit

You can compress your folders so that they take up less space. Select the folder and right click and then go to "Properties/Advanced" and select "Compact Now".

Face the Fax

The fax machine may have waned in popularity since the advent of email but they are still in use. Many faxes are sent via computer rather than machine these days, but if you neither send nor receive faxes on your computer then uninstalling it makes sense, especially as there is evidence of conflicts occurring between the fax and Outlook 2007.

To uninstall the fax service, and with it any possible conflict, open the "Control Panel" and choose "Add/Remove Programs". Click on "Add/Remove Windows Components" and uncheck "Fax Service".

Subtract Add-ins

One of the most common cited causes for Outlook 2007 to run sluggishly is the presence of add-ins. You can disable unwanted add-ins by selecting "Tools/Trust Centre/Add-ins". Uncheck those you don't have any use for and restart Outlook.

Start Me Up

If you have Outlook on for long periods of time this can cause it to run more slowly. The longer Outlook is switched on, the more memory resources it takes to keep it functioning properly. This is mainly due to pesky third-party add-ins. Closing down and restarting should fix this.

And Finally...

Like many other applications, Outlook had its own built-in repair mechanism that will diagnose and repair many problems automatically, and here's how to do it. From the "Help" menu select "Office Diagnostics" and run the tests, but bear in mind that this process can take up to 15 minutes.

These are some of the ways you can streamline your Outlook for minimum drag. There are other possible causes for Outlook to operate sluggishly but the above are certainly some steps you can take to try and get yours up to maximum speed.