You probably use Outlook for business, which makes it doubly important you save every message when moving to a new copy of Outlook on another Mac or after reinstalling OS X. Fortunately it’s easy to do even if you don’t use Time Machine or another method to back up your Mac’s drive.

Difficulty Level: Easy

What You Need:

>> Outlook 2011 mail client

>> An external drive to which you can back up your data

1. Pick Your Data

First, connect your external drive to your Mac. In Outlook’s Menu Bar, select File > Export. In the resulting window, choose to export an Outlook For Mac Data File, then select Items Of The Following Types and check each kind of data you’d like to transfer.

2. Export Your Data

Click the window’s right arrow to continue, then choose whether to delete your data after export. Click the right arrow again to choose where to save your exported .olm archive. Choose your external drive in the resulting Save window, then click Save to complete the backup. Eject the drive when you’re done.

3. Import Your Data

Reconnect your drive to your new Mac or new installation of OS X, then launch Outlook. At the welcome screen, click Import. In Outlook’s Menu Bar, select File > Import, then choose to import an Outlook Data File in the resulting window.

Click the right arrow to continue, then choose Outlook For Mac Data File in the next window. Click the right arrow again, then choose the .olm file on your external drive in the Import window and click Import.

When the import is finished, your old mail will appear in the Archived Mail folder in Outlook’s sidebar. Hopefully this will improve your outlook for the rest of the day.