Forum Discussion
Renderhaus
May 13, 2024Copper Contributor
Looking to transition from Outlook 2007, BUT...
I've been stubbornly holding out with Outlook 2007 all these years for one simple feature that Microsoft seems to have completely left out of each of these newer versions. I've tried desperately to find a work-around to it, but keep coming up empty. This is a key feature for me, and I'm hoping someone here can give me a suitable workaround. Drag-and-drop email copying/linking into file folders on my hard drive - not to elsewhere within the contained boundaries of Outlook.
I operate a business with many clients, for each of which I have multiple independent projects. I've got separate folders (on my hard drive) for each project, broken down also by year - so it's not enough to categorize email by client only. My preferred method of keeping easily referenced tabs on all of those correspondences is to drag-and-drop all those email into those project folders. Outlook 2007 lets me do exactly that. I'm told Outlook 2010 also works that way. But all subsequent versions (including this most recent update) do not.
Is there a reasonable workaround to filing copies (or at least active links) on my hard drive with the newest Outlook? I am willing to look at alternative methods of keeping track of my client emails, but it MUST let me pool them (broken down by project and client) all together - as opposed to simply doing a 'search' from within Outlook every time I need to see old correspondence.
BTW, I am not a Microsoft 365 subscriber. If 365 allows the drag-and-drop capability I may have to consider going against my nature and pay eternally for something that I previously had unlimited access to after a single purchase.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
2 Replies
Sort By
That feature has never left any Outlook release. Dragging and dropping emails out of Outlook into a File Explorer folder will create a standalone msg-file.
So you can choose between a perpetual license of Outlook 2021 (supported until October 13, 2026) or wait for Outlook 2024 to be released later this year (likely to be supported until October 2029) or go for a Microsoft 365 subscription (supported until you end the subscription).
Note that in New Outlook, this feature (like many others) has not yet been implemented but this version also isn't considered "Enterprise ready" yet.
- RenderhausCopper Contributor
Thanks Robert. Okay, so that's why it wouldn't work when I tried it just earlier today using the newest Outlook.
Encouraging news about 2021 & 2024. I wasn't even aware that perpetual licenses were still being sold for Microsoft products. At about this time last year I had a long talk with a Microsoft agent about this very feature, because I was flatly unable to do it with Outlook via a free trial of the Office 365 subscription. Drag & drop simply would not work to a hard-drive folder.