SPRING CLEANING YOUR E-MAILBOX
As Spring rolls around, in addition to the general cleaning we do regularly, there is always a powerful urge to completely clean out closets, garages, and storage places. Now is the perfect time to add email to your list by throwing out all of those old messages that have been piling up in your mailbox. Cleaning up your folders not only helps with space on our email servers, it also makes it easier for you to find those emails you need to keep by removing all the excess stuff. Utilizing the following set of instructions, you can definitely “slim down” your Inbox, Sent Items, and Deleted Items folders.

Cleaning out the INBOX

  1. Highlight the Inbox folder in your mailbox.If you can not see all the folders in your mailbox, click on View and choose Folder List to display the folders.
  2. Sort your messages in a way that is most convenient for reviewing. There are several sort methods to choose from. To select a sort method, simply click on the title at the top of the group of messages.

    3. EX:

     

    Clicking on RECEIVED at the top of the group of messages in the example above will sort all the messages in “date of receive” order with the most recent date at the top. Clicking RECEIVED a second time will put the most recent date at the bottom.

    You can sort by “FROM”, “SUBJECT”, “RECEIVED”, Attachments (the paperclip symbol), etc.

  3. Once you have sorted the messages, you can highlight any message you wish to remove and either press the delete key on your keyboard, or click the icon with the symbol.
  4. Alternatively, if you want to delete more than one message at a time, you can use one of the two methods below:

    Individual files not grouped together
    1. Click one time on the first message
    2. Hold down your CTRL key on the keyboard
    3. While holding down this key, click one time on each additional message you wish to remove

    Several files grouped together
    1. Click one time on the first message in the list\group
    2. Hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard
    3. While holding down this key, click on the last message in the list\group – this will highlight all the messages in between

      4. Deleting messages from the Inbox does not really delete the file. It moves the message to the Deleted Items folder. In order to completely remove the messages from your mailbox, you will need to empty out the Deleted Items folder.

Cleaning out the SENT ITEMS
  1. Highlight the Sent Items folder in your mailbox. If you can not see all the folders in your mailbox, click on View and choose Folder List to display the folders
  2. Sort your messages in a way that is most convenient for reviewing. There are several sort methods to choose from. To select a sort method, simply click on the title at the top of the group of messages.
    3. EX: a



    Clicking on RECEIVED at the top of the group of messages in the example above will sort all the messages in “date of receive” order with the most recent date at the top. Clicking RECEIVED a second time will put the most recent date at the bottom

    You can sort by “FROM”, “SUBJECT”, “RECEIVED”, Attachments (the paperclip symbol), etc.

  3. Once you have sorted the messages, you can highlight any message you wish to remove and either press the delete key on your keyboard, or click the icon with the symbol.
  4. Alternatively, if you want to delete more than one message at a time, you can use one of the two methods below:

    5. Individual files not grouped together

    1. Click one time on the first message to highlight it
    2. Hold down your CTRL key on the keyboard
    3. While holding down this key, click one time on each additional message you wish to remove


    Several files grouped together

    1. Click one time on the first message in the list\group to highlight it
    2. Hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard
    3. While holding down this key, click on the last message in the list\group – this will highlight all the messages in between

      4. Deleting messages from the Sent Items does not really delete the file. It moves the message to the Deleted Items folder. In order to completely remove the messages from your mailbox, you will need to empty out the Deleted Items folder.

Cleaning out the Deleted Items
  1. Highlight the Deleted Items folder in your mailbox. If you can not see all the folders in your mailbox, click on View and choose Folder List to display the folders
  2. Right-click on the folder with your right mouse button and choose Empty “Deleted Items” folder. Alternatively, you may click on Tools in the menu bar and select Empty “Deleted Items” folder.
  3. If it asks you to confirm permanent deletion of all files in the folder, click yes.
    4.

As always, if you have any questions or need assistance, please call our Helpdesk at x5470, menu option #2.

For any questions or comments about this web site, please feel free to email us at sh-helpdesk@lsuhsc.edu