It is also a very handy way of transfering your address book to another PC, or to an updated version of outlook express.

This guide will take you through the process of backing up your address book with the use of screenshots and text.

Backing up your address book in Outlook Express

Backing up your address book is fairly simple to do in Outlook express.

First of all open the Outlook express program.

Next, click on File and then hover the mouse over Export and then click on Address book.

You will now see the export dialogue box similar to that shown below in fig 1.1.

The best format to use to export your address book is the Text File (comma separated values), so select this option and click the Export button (as shown in fig 1.1).

Now enter the path to which you want to save the address book, we have used d:\backup\addresses.csv.

You can save the file to anywhere you like, but you must name the file with the suffix .csv, as we have in our example (addresses.csv).

When you have entered the name of the file and location simply click the Next button.

You will now be asked which fields you want to export, simply put a tick in the box next to the fields you require, then click the Finish button.

If all goes well you should be rewarded with a dialogue box announcing Address book export process has completed or some similar message.

To import the backed up address book into a new or different outlook express is again straight forward.

First click on File, hover the mouse pointer over Import and then click on Other Address Book.

Next, you will be asked what type of address book you want to import, select Text File (comma separated values) from the options and then click the import button.

It will then ask you for the location of the address book, click the Browse button, navigate to where you saved it and select your backup file, then click the Next button.

Now select the fields you wish to import by ticking them and then simply click the Finished button.