Outlook email changes creation date when moved to a folder

[Guest]

Hi, I want to try having an electronic filing system where all items -
including emails - are kept in a windows folder. That file can then be sorted
by name, size, type, date modified, date created etc. I can drag and drop
emails from Outlook into the folder no problem. However, after an email is
moved, the field for "date created" is fixed by the computer as being the
date the email is dragged and dropped into the folder, rather than the
original date the email was created. Why does it do this, and is there a way
to have the email in the folder record the date of the email? Thanks.

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Hi, I want to try having an electronic filing system where all items -
including emails - are kept in a windows folder. That file can then be
sorted
by name, size, type, date modified, date created etc. I can drag and
drop
emails from Outlook into the folder no problem. However, after an email is
moved, the field for "date created" is fixed by the computer as being the
date the email is dragged and dropped into the folder, rather than the
original date the email was created. Why does it do this, and is there a
way
to have the email in the folder record the date of the email? Thanks.

Why does it do it? Because the e-mail is not a filesystem type file and
when you drag it to the desktop it becomes one.

Is there a way to change it? I'm sure there are some file system programs
that let you change create dates manually, but I don't think any are smart
enough to read the file you're dropping to find the date in it to use that
unless you were to manually create one.

Lastly, my question for you: Why bother doing it? You can sort on pretty
much every field on an email within Outlook itself (and, likely, more fields
than you can if you have a folder full of .msgs). Why bother putting it
into the file system?

 

[Guest]

FH thank you.

The reason is that I am trying to create a folder system for documents which
is accessible to everyone who has to use that folder. If the email is kept in
my inbox then it will not be accessible to others who access the folder and
the file will not be a complete electronic version of the paper file.

For me personally, google desktop in combination with outlook and a folder
system for documents works well, but that will not apply to others who cant
access my emails.

 

[F. H. Muffman]

The reason is that I am trying to create a folder system for documents
which
is accessible to everyone who has to use that folder. If the email is kept
in
my inbox then it will not be accessible to others who access the folder
and
the file will not be a complete electronic version of the paper file.

For me personally, google desktop in combination with outlook and a folder
system for documents works well, but that will not apply to others who
cant
access my emails.

Sounds like you have a justified need to purchase a mail server =) (or other
sharing system, like http://www.softalkltd.com/products/workgroupshare/,
http://www.olfolders.de/Lang/English/OLfolders/olw1.htm, or
http://www.mapilab.com/groupware/server/).

I'm assuming the users in question are on the network, not on the same
machine? I mean, if you're on the same machine, just share the PST file.

 

[Guest]

The email solution is interesting and I will look at that.

However, it does not permit all relevant documents to be stored in one
folder centrally which is an advantage in my industry. For audit purposes
documents relating to a client need to be kept in a folder so they can be
produced to auditors as a complete electronic record that can be kept in
storage, for example.

I have looked around for a utility which will automatically rename a file to
the same name but add perhaps an incremental number at the end to
differentiate the files but havent found one.

anyone got any other ideas?

 

[F. H. Muffman]

The email solution is interesting and I will look at that.

However, it does not permit all relevant documents to be stored in one
folder centrally which is an advantage in my industry. For audit purposes
documents relating to a client need to be kept in a folder so they can be
produced to auditors as a complete electronic record that can be kept in
storage, for example.

I have looked around for a utility which will automatically rename a file
to
the same name but add perhaps an incremental number at the end to
differentiate the files but havent found one.

anyone got any other ideas?

Create a PST in the directory where you store all relevant documents.
Put emails for that client into that PST.

I think that a PST file is relatively ubiquitous and an auditor would be
able to work with it. If not, well, how could they work with a Word file?
Or an Excel spreadsheet? I mean, they require software as well. You aren't
storing everything in plain text, right?

 

[Guest]

FH

while that would solve the problem, it would require every person in the
organisation to create their own PST file for each matter which would have to
be updated regularly, leading to wasted time and effort.

The beauty of the folder system for individual documents is that every
person can create unique names according to unique file naming system for
most individually created documents, but that is not available for emails.

 

[F. H. Muffman]

while that would solve the problem, it would require every person in the
organisation to create their own PST file for each matter which would have
to
be updated regularly, leading to wasted time and effort.

Yep, it sure would. Well, not really the wasted time and effort part.
Takes all of a minute to create a pst. And doing that automatically creates
an Inbox.

The beauty of the folder system for individual documents is that every
person can create unique names according to unique file naming system for
most individually created documents, but that is not available for
emails.

And it really shouldn't be. If you're able to change the fields of an
email, you're changing the data of that email. Most auditors would have
concerns about that (or they should).

So, I guess you have to make a choice.

Live with the fact that the date on a file is not related to the date within
the header of the message.
-or-
Teach your employees how to quickly create a PST.

Or, as I said earlier in the thread, purchase an Exchange Server solution
and put the messages in a Public Folder.