About importing and exporting

The advantage of importing and exporting data using the Import/Export Wizard is that it saves you from having to manually re-enter data you need.

Importing

Outlook gives you the ability to copy data from many programs so that you can use that data in Outlook. For example, you might want to bring in existing information such as names and addresses from one of the following programs: Eudora, Lotus Organizer, Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Mail, or Microsoft Schedule+.

You also might want to convert your Personal Address Book, with its contact information, to a Contacts folder. Do this by importing the contact  information to the Contacts folder. Outlook contacts are fully integrated into Outlook, providing flexibility and customization that is not available in the Personal Address Book.

To import information, use the Import/Export Wizard to move the contents of the file into a folder that you specify in Outlook.

Exporting

Outlook gives you the ability to copy data, such as names and addresses, to several other programs, including dBase, Microsoft Access, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and FoxPro. For example, you might want to export your contacts to Excel so that you can sort names and addresses using a worksheet.

You can also export items to a Personal Folders file (.pst) for safe keeping and save the file anywhere. A .pst file can be read only by Outlook. Folder design properties such permissions, rules, description, forms, and views are not preserved when you export to a Personal Folders file. Only the content itself is exported.

Use the Import/Export Wizard to export items from Outlook.