I like to save received and sent email messages (including address details) in Word document (DOC) format. Unfortunately the “File” menu > “Save” option in Outlook Express 6 does not offer this file format. As a workaround, I need to save the email as a text (.txt) file and then cut and paste the content into a DOC file. This requires two separate procedures, which is quite cumbersome. Is there an easier way? The computer is running Windows XP.

You are correct that Outlook Express does not allow you to save emails in DOC format. In fact, I do not know of any email client which allows you to save emails in that format. This is probably because the developers of email packages do not envisage the user will want to save their emails in this format since it is a fairly non-standard format for saving emails. The most common options for saving emails are plain text (.txt), HTML (.html), rich-text format (.rtf) or email (.eml). You are currently saving the emails in text based format, which is the most universal format since text files are readable on pretty much any computer without the need for specialised software (e.g. Microsoft Word). Generally the operating system comes with software to allow the reading of plain text files, such as Notepad and WordPad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac and emacs or pico on Linux to name a few. When saving emails I always use plain text format to guarantee that the files can be read regardless of the platform or operating system that I may choose to use in the future.

However, if the email has formatting (such as colours, bold text, etc.) then saving the email as a text file will strip all that formatting, as text files can only have pure text – it does not allow any special formatting. If the emails do have formatting then you may wish to consider saving the email in either HTML or RTF formats. HTML format will essentially save the email as a webpage. This works fairly well, since formatted emails normally use HTML for the formatting. Similar to the text based format, HTML files can be read using a web browser on almost any platform. However, if the email contains images then these will be saved as separate files, since you cannot embed images within the HTML file itself, and then referenced from the HTML file. As such, this could be a messier solution since you may need to manage multiple files. An alternative is to use rich text format. This is a Word-like document format, which supports formatted text (as the “rich text” portion of the name implies) and can be viewed using most word processing applications, including WordPad and TextEdit included with Windows and Mac respectively. Unfortunately, Outlook Express does not support this format (nor do many other email programs) so this is not really an option for your situation.

The final file format in which you can save an email is an EML file. This essentially saves the email as a discrete file which can then be opened and viewed in its original format within your email client. Most email clients support the reading and opening of EML files, although because it is opening a copy of the email in its original “email format” the content of the message is not editable. This could also make it a bit more cumbersome to read the saved messages, since they need to open in your email client rather than a potentially quicker loading word processing program.

As you can see, there is unfortunately no good solution to your problem of wanting to save the emails as Word documents. However, another possible method is to save the emails as PDF files. As you are likely aware, PDF files are very common and also vendor independent, as they can be read on most computer platforms. However, they do have the issue that PDF files cannot be edited (well, technically they can but for the purposes of our discussion we will assume that they cannot be edited). That said, it seems that for your purposes you wish to keep a record of communication between yourself and others, so therefore not being able to edit the emails makes these records more reliable as a log of communication. If this sounds like your objective, then the PDF export is likely to be the best option.

Even though the email client may not support saving to PDF (as I know for a fact that Outlook Express does not provide this functionality) this is not a problem. Unlike other file formats, such as Word documents, which are constrained in the way that they can display content (for example, Word documents require the content of the document to be formatted and structured in a particular way – a bit like writing on lined paper) PDF files do not have these constraints, and are more analogous to a blank painting canvas, allowing you to position the content however you deem appropriate. This means that converting particular documents into PDF format is a relatively easier process. Most PDF conversion utilities install themselves as a printer driver and appear like any other printer when you go to the “File” menu > “Print”. However, instead of sending the content being printed to an actual physical printer, the PDF “virtual” printer driver instead sends the content to its own internal PDF conversion engine and then produces a PDF file. This produced PDF file looks identical to a printed copy of the content. As you can probably see, this means that you can convert anything to PDF so long as the application being used to edit or view the content supports printing.

Additionally, there are many free PDF conversion utilities available. One of the better utilities is PrimoPDF, available for free download from: www.primopdf.com. There are two versions available, the free version and professional (paid) version. The free version should be sufficient for creating PDF files, but if you like the free version then you may also wish to look at the professional version to see whether that has any additional functions which you may find useful. Be aware, when you download and install the free version of PrimoPDF you may see some advertisements for other products during the installation. This is part of the OpenCandy network which allows software publishers to advertise products during the installation of other products. These advertised programs are not needed for PrimoPDF to function so do not feel obliged to install any of the suggested programs. Additionally, if you do decide to install the suggested programs then make sure you conduct your own research on whether they are suitable for your purposes as I am unable to provide advice regarding those programs, since I do not know what programs will appear during the installation of PrimoPDF on your computer.

Once PrimoPDF has been installed you should be able to “print” the email to PDF format in Outlook Express (and any other application which supports printing). Select an email then go to the “File” menu > “Print”. In the list of printers select “PrimoPDF” and then click the Print button. The PrimoPDF window will appear allowing you to customise the settings for the PDF to be created. You should be able to leave these at the default settings, although I encourage you to explore the other settings once you are comfortable with using the product. Once the process has finished PrimoPDF should generate the PDF file and you will notice that it will look just like a printed copy of the email, except it has been generated as a PDF file instead.

At this point you may be wondering whether there is a utility which can “print” to DOC files. Unfortunately I was unable to find a utility for this purpose, and it would be unlikely that a utility could reliably do this conversion. As we discussed previously, Word documents have structures and formatting constraints to which the document content must comply, whereas PDF documents do not have the same level of constraints. Therefore, it is much easier (and more reliable) to replicate the printed output in a PDF file rather than a Word document.