windows mail and outlook 2003 merge?

clodhopper_2

hi, i have office 2007 on my home based office pc and i use windows mail on this - but i dont like windows mail. i find it difficult to back up and i cannot copy mail from this to two other machines that run office 2003 and have outlook 2003 on them.

by the nature of my work, the e-mails that i receive form my orders and my contracts.
windows mail now has about 5000 e-mails in the 'in-box' all subdivided into about 70 sub directories.

but this is not backed up.

1 how can i back this up,
2 can i load my office 2003 disk onto my new machine selecting only outlook to load and then transfer everything from windows mail onto outlook.

is this a stupid thing to do?

thanks

System

If you install Outlook 2003 then you can transfer all your messages to it from Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail. The process is the same for both.

Set Outlook 2003 up with your email account(s) and then close it. Open Windows Mail.
Select File - Export - Messages
Highlight Microsoft Exchange and select Next
Click OK to the info message.
You are n ow presented with a profile selection dropdown
If you only have one it will be the one showing.
Select OK
You are now presented with folder selection window
Normal rules apply. Holding Ctrl down while clicking adds that folder to selection. Holding shift adds all the folders between the previously highlighted folder and the one you click on.
Hit OK and the messages will export into Outlook.

Once in Outlook you can move them into PSTs of your choice and back them up as you wish.

I'm not an Office 2007 user but I think you can probably do this in Outlook 2007 and the PST files should be compatible with Outlook 2003.


And No, considering the importance of these files to you, it is not a stupid idea. You need some sort of backup strategy for your important files

clodhopper_2

the rest of the software on this macine is office 2007, but the version i got does not have outlook.

would it be ok to load outlook 2003 onto a system with office 2007 already on it?

System

Outlook 2003 should load on without a problem