Best format for saving emails containing attachments

[George R.]

I frequently have emails containing attachments; would it be best to save as
..msg so attachments stay a part of the email? Please provide discuss
positives and negatives of saving as .msg format or other format. An email
with an
attachment saved in .msg format had a file size of 1,062 KB; same email saved
as a .txt file and attachments saved in their formats (Adobe Acrobat and MS
Word) had combined total size of 932 KB (smaller which IT likes, but
not sure this is significant). Disadvantage of saving to .pst is that no
other network user can get to this information? Seems like separating the
attachment is a
bigger problem than file size/storage space. Comments appreciated!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Depending on your needs one way to go would be to store it in a document
management system which is accessible to others (permissions) and has a
certain level of compression. Windows SharePoint Services comes with a
Windows Server license.

Other ways to go would be to leave it on the Exchange server and share your
folders from there (or a Public Folder).

If you really just want to share individual messages with attachments, then
leave it in the msg-format. The size difference is almost irrelevant and
disk space for file servers is a lot cheaper these days.

I wouldn't mess with non-native Outlook formats if you would like to keep
the additional Outlook information and flexibility.

 

[George R.]

Thanks Roady, very helpful.
Other replies would be appreciated.

 

[John Mayson]

I frequently have emails containing attachments; would it be best to save as
.msg so attachments stay a part of the email? Please provide discuss
positives and negatives of saving as .msg format or other format. An email
with an
attachment saved in .msg format had a file size of 1,062 KB; same email saved
as a .txt file and attachments saved in their formats (Adobe Acrobat and MS
Word) had combined total size of 932 KB (smaller which IT likes, but
not sure this is significant). Disadvantage of saving to .pst is that no
other network user can get to this information? Seems like separating the
attachment is a
bigger problem than file size/storage space. Comments appreciated!

My question is what exactly are you trying to accomplish?

If you just want an archive of messages I suggest keeping them in a .pst
file. I can't imagine any IT department these days fussing over 932 kB
versus 1,062 kB. .pst files are stored on your hard drive and most
computers these days have ample space.

There are times when it's convenient to save a message into another
format. Perhaps you have to send a document package to a customer and
want to include emails, you could save them as .msg files. They would
need Outlook on their end to open them. (If there's a viewer for .msg
files that doesn't require Outlook I don't know about it.)

I own a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet which can handle .rtf, .html, and .txt
files. Since I don't like carrying my laptop everywhere, I save emails I
think I might need in one of the three formats (depends on the format the
sender used) onto my N810. I won an argument last year during a meeting
because I was able to produce the other guy's email proving he said what I
claimed he had said.

Does this help answer your question? If you're aiming for ultimate
portability you would have to export to an mbox file which is a topic unto
itself.

John