Office 2013 In Depth

Understanding Outlook Data Files

When you work in Outlook, you manage and manipulate different types of items, such as email, appointments, contacts, and tasks. These different items have their own homes in Outlook. For example, new email messages are in the Inbox, whereas the To Do list displays tasks. You might find it odd to learn that these different Outlook items are stored in a single Outlook data file. So, all your Outlook items are contained in this data file, which is referred to as a personal storage folder, or .pst file. This file is essential to Outlook’s operation and your access to your emails, appointments, tasks, and meetings.

The personal storage folder is actually created when you create your Outlook profile and configure Outlook ...