Once you've started using Outlook 2010 you may need to organize regular backups. This article describes a simple and effective way to do this for all your Outlook data. You can then repeat this at regular intervals to help manage your emails effectively.

You can backup all your Outlook work to a single data file, but before you do this you might want to check the overall size of your Outlook folders and then delete any unwanted emails, for example in your Inbox or Sent items folder. It's particularly important to check emails containing attachments because these can take up significant file space. Once you've tidied up your emails you can then emptying your Deleted items folder.

You can delete appropriate emails as you wish by choosing a folder such as Inbox, select one or more emails you want to delete, and then click the Delete button in the Home tab. Then you could the contents of the Deleted items folder. In Outlook 2010 there is an alternative way. You can do all these tasks using the new Mailbox Cleanup tool.

To use Outlook 2010's Mailbox Cleanup choose the File tab, click the Cleanup Tools button and select Mailbox cleanup. In the Mailbox Cleanup panel you can click on the View Mailbox Size button to check the size of all your Outlook items including emails, calendar items and tasks. Lower in the panel you'll see options to list items over a certain number of days old, or over a certain size.

To do this, choose appropriate settings and then click the Find button. The Advanced Find panel opens and if you give Outlook a few moments, all the relevant items will be listed. You can then delete any number of the found items as you wish, and then return to the Mailbox Cleanup panel. You'll see that you can empty the Deleted Items folder by clicking the Empty button lower down in the panel. Once all this is done you're ready to create your backup.

To create a full backup, we're going to use Outlook's Import/Export feature. You can also create a backup by using the Archive feature, but this involves choosing a cutoff date for the archive process, and archiving does remove the original data from Outlook. In contrast the Import/Export feature allows us to make a complete backup copy, with the original data untouched.

To start the backup process, choose the File tab and select Open, then Import. Although it doesn't say, this option actually means Import or Export. The Import/Export panel opens. Choose "Export to a File" and click Next. Under the heading CREATE A FILE OF TYPE choose "Outlook Data File" and click Next. Under SELECT A FOLDER TO EXPORT FROM, ensure you click the topmost choice. This is usually Personal Folders, but it can be Mailbox along with your own name. Also ensure the checkbox INCLUDE SUBFOLDERS is ticked. Then click Next. Under SAVE EXPORTED FILE AS click the Browse button and navigate to the location where you want to save the backup to.

You can also edit the backup name to one of your own choice, for example to include the backup date. Then click Finish to complete. Outlook will then backup up each Outlook folder in turn, including all your other folders such as for calendars and tasks. If you've been using Outlook for any length of time you might like to have a short break at this time as the backup process can take a few minutes to complete. By the way in previous versions of Outlook the backup data file was saved by default to the Windows folder system. In Outlook 2010 you can more easily save the data file to any location you like, including external drives or memory sticks if you wish.

Once complete, the Export panel closes and you'll see that all your Outlook data is still there, as the backup process only copies data. Once the backup is complete you may then want to delete items from the various folder, for example from before a particular data, in order to reduce the overall size of your Outlook data. If you don't do this, your Outlook folders will of course grow and grow in size, so remember to check this regularly with the Mailbox Cleanup Tool.

So that completes our summary of how to create a backup copy of all your Outlook data. Once you've carried out this process several times and perhaps renamed the backup files to the backup date, you'll then have built up several backup data files. You might like to copy these to an external device or a CD/DVD for a longer term backup if you wish to keep your data longer term.

Interested in learning more about Outlook 2010? A really effective way is to attend a training course. That way, under guided instruction and with lots of hands on practice you can really boost your skills in using Outlook 2010.