Message archiving is an important step in keeping the amount of data in your mailbox down to a manageable size.  As you approach the size limit of your mailbox, you will receive automatic system notices from the email server warning you to reduce the number of messages in your mailboxes.  One of the easiest methods for reducing the amount of data in your mailbox is to use Outlook’s built-in archiving function.  The archiving process removes messages from your mailbox on the IceMAIL server and moves those messages into a locally-stored folder, which allows you to continue to access those messages should you need access to them at any point.

1) While in Microsoft Outlook 2003, click on File then Archive.

2) Select the folder that you want to archive messages from. This can be the whole mail folder or just a single folder like Inbox or Sent Items.

3) Set the date and destination folder for the archive file. You can either save the archive to the default location or you can browse to a local or network folder.

4) Click OK. It may take some time depending on how many messages are being archived.  A new folder “Archive Folders” will appear.

You can repeat the steps at any time. By selecting the same destination file, new archived messages will just be added to the existing Archive Folders. 

Manual “Drag and Drop” Archiving
You can also manually move messages from your main mailbox to your archive at any time by dragging the message from any mailbox folder and dropping it onto the corresponding folder under “Archive Folders.” 

Auto Archiving
You may also want to set up autoarchiving, which will automatically archive messages at an interval that you specify.  You can access the autoarchiving settings by going to Tools>Options, click on the “Other” tab and click on the “Autoarchive” button.