Creating Custom Email Export Profiles with MessageExport

MessageExport add-in for Microsoft Outlook brings new features to the Outlook toolbar interface, making it easy to save emails in different formats, and in different ways.   Although MessageExport is highly functional right out of the box, sometimes you may find that you have an 'edge case' for exporting emails that requires a custom profile.

To be clear, export profiles are stored sets of instructions that cause MessageExport to perform specific tasks, like exporting a message to PDF, giving the PDF file a specific name, and then copying it some where on your hard drive.  You select the active export profile by choosing from the MessageExport drop down toolbar.

 

 In this article, we will show you how to invoke the MessageExport profile wizard so you can build our own custom profile.  To invoke the wizard, click the wizard button in the MessageExport toolbar. The location of the wizard button is shown in the below image.

Click "Next" to continue progressing through the wizard. The next screen lets you select the conversion format.  For example, if you want to export Outlook emails to Tiff image format, then choose TIFF from the drop down list.

Click Next to go to the next screen.  

 

Naming Schema Settings is where you choose the email data that is used to provide a name to exported emails.  The currently selected fields appear on the right.  Using the arrow buttons, you can remove fields you don't want, and add fields that you do want.  You can also add "constructors" to the name, which are characters like hyphen or underscore which help make the file name more readable.

Click next again to go to the Output Folder screen.

During an export operation, you may want to choose where MessageExport saves the converted emails.  The wizard lets you store a pre-defined Windows folder in the export profile.  You can also choose to be prompted for a location at the start of the export operation.

Click next to advance the wizard. 

Congratulations! You have completed making your first MessageExport profile. Click finish and your new profile will now appear in the main MessageExport drop down list.

You can always edit the profile (or any profile) by choosing the profile in the list and then clicking the Edit button in the MessageExport toolbar.

If you have any questions about creating MessageExport email export profiles, post them below or contact the Encryptomatic LLC support team.

Bulk Converting Outlook email to Text with MessageExport™ add-in

The MessageExport™ add-in is a helpful set of tools for Microsoft Outlook users that improve personal productivity by automating and simplifying e-mail export chores. Today we're going to discuss how to export Outlook emails into text files. 

We will look at how to accomplish the task of exporting email to text first using Outlook's own capabilities.  Next, we'll perform the same task using the MessageExport add-in for Outlook.  By the end of the article you'll understand the limitations of MS Outlook when converting email to text, as well as the added capabilities that MessageExport brings to the Outlook environment.

Exporting Outlook email to Text

Outlook natively includes the ability in Outlook 2013 to save selected emails into a single text document.  Here are the steps to accomplish this with Outlook.

First, select the messages from Outlook's mail list so they are highlighted. You can select one, or many emails.

Next, go to Outlook's File menu, and select "Save As Text."

Outlook "Save As"

Outlook will open a dialog to prompt you for the format type, and the file name.

Save as type, "Text Only"

When you click "Save," Outlook will export all of the selected emails into a single text file.

Header of an email converted to text by MS Outlook 2013.

Outlook 2013 does not provide the ability to export emails as individual text files. To export emails individually requires a separate "save as" operation for each email.

Exporting Outlook Email To Text With MessageExport

Now let's perform a similar email-to-text export operation using the MessageExport add-in for Outlook.

Once gain, the first step is to highlight the messages we want to export in the Outlook mail list. We can select one email, all of the emails in the list, individual messages.

Next, select the "Export to Text" profile from the MessageExport toolbar.

MessageExport add-in toolbar

Click the export button in the MessageExport toolbar, and select a target folder on your hard drive or storage media. MessageExport will begin converting your Outlook emails into individual text files.

An Email Message Saved as Text File with the MessageExport Outlook add-in.

While the email text output looks similar between Outlook and MessageExport, there are benefits to using MessageExport.

First, MessageExport lets you bulk export emails to individual text files, while Outlook will only save selected emails into a single text file.  To export emails to individual text files with Outlook requires saving them individualy, a repetitive task that is very tedious and inefficient.

Second, MessageExport can apply a custom naming scheme to the individual text files it creates.

Third, MessageExport can remember which emails have already been exported, avoiding duplication.

Fourth, MessageExport can process email file attachments as part of your export operation. File attachments can be saved outside of the text file to an appropriately named subfolder.

Fifth, you can automate the export of Outlook email to text files. Unattended operation is supported, and you can also select which folders to export.

MessageExport's Text Export Settings May Be Customized.

MessageExport has many other powerful capabilites beyond those discussed in this article. In addition to text files, it adds other useful formats to Outlook including PDF, CSV (Excel), Gif, Tif, Mbox, Odt, Msg, Eml and others.

MessageExport costs $79.99 for a single license. Download a free trial and use it with no obligation for 15 days.

If you have any questions, please post them below. We'll be glad to respond. You can also email us at [supportline at encrytomatic.com].