I agree with Mark, this topic is very relevant to records management.

I don't believe the widely-touted approach of archiving ALL e-mails is an
acceptable solution. Catherine wishes to merge several e-mails together and
store them in a different format. This is a concern also - as  Eldin points
out not all metadata will be stored; and can a merge of several e-mails into
one document be regarded as a true record ? What do others think ?

Surely the safest approach is to declare an e-mail as a record and then save
that one (e-mail) record. If you use Outlook, saving as a file in Microsoft
.msg format (ie as a document) gives you an exact copy of the e-mail. You
could still view these saved e-mails using Outlook.  Alternatively you could
save in Acrobat .pdf format but is this a true record as not all the
metadata will be stored ?

As far as re-using e-mails saved as documents, I am not sure you should be
doing this once the e-mail is declared as a record. It may be better to
start a new e-mail and either refer to the contents of the original or
attach it to the e-mail. As Peter says, an e-mail stored in .msg format does
in fact allow you to reply to it.

Regards,
Steve Norris
Alliance Group
www.alliancegroup.co.uk



-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mark Brookes
Sent: 02 February 2007 11:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Converting emails into documents


I think this topic is really relevant and something I have been giving
consideration to here. I also have PDF maker and it works/integrates
well with most applications on Windows.

However the challenge I have found from converting emails into
documents is their re-use, particularly if you delete the original email
and rely on the document.

For instance if a PDF is generated or a text file, how do you re-use
the content (i.e. reply to the email). Has anyone found this issue or
developed solutions for it (we do not use Outlook in this organisation
but do sometimes store emails in EDRM).

Regards

Mark Brookes

Information Officer
CITB-ConstructionSkills
Tel: 01485 577383
Mob: 07775 676403


>>> "Bradshaw, Phillip" <[log in to unmask]> 01/02/07 20:32:01
>>>
 As Steve and Eldin mention Adobe will do this - including single
click
exporting a complete Outlook folder to a single pdf document. Although
you
lose some of the metadata it can be a very useful tool for working with
an
archive, as the process creates bookmarks which let you sort the emails
by
sender, date etc.

-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 01/02/2007 18:04
Subject: Re: Converting emails into documents

Hi Catherine,

If a single 'print' document gives you all you need you could choose
to
print to an Acrobat (pdf) document. Acrobat and other software
packages
offer a 'print' driver which installs on your PC and allows you to
'print'
to a pdf document and save it to disk.

It would also be possible to program an Outlook add-in to output just
what
you want to a document type (eg Word) - This isn't for the
faint-hearted
though !

Regards,

Steve Norris
Alliance Group
www.alliancegroup.co.uk



-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Redfern
Catherine
Sent: 01 February 2007 17:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Converting emails into documents


I hope this is not off-topic, but in my mind it fall within records
management, so here goes:

Using Outlook and Windows, is there a way of exporting the content and
basic metadata (subject heading, to, from, date etc) in a series of
emails into a single document (e.g. word?).

For example in Outlook when I select several emails together and go to
print preview, it shows a single print document which contains the
content and header information from all the selected emails.

I want to be able to save this document and retain all the relevant
formatting.

The aim is make a series of emails about a single issue more easily
readable for future reference, i.e. rather than having to open each
seperate email, have them all in one document.

Does anyone know if this is possible? Any pointers gratefully
received.

Catherine


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