Even though you delete items from your Outlook 2000 folders and clear out the Deleted Items folders, your Personal Folder file can continue to grow. The reason is that Outlook doesn't automatically recover the space that was used by items that you've deleted. You must tell Outlook to compact your Personal Folder file to recover that space.

To compact your Personal Folder file, follow these steps:

1. Select Tools, Services to display the Services dialog box.

2. Select Personal Folders from the list of services.

3. Click the Properties button to display the Personal Folders dialog box.

4. Click the Compact Now button to remove the wasted space.

If you haven't selected this option for some time, you may have to wait a few minutes for the task to complete.

5. Click OK to close the Personal Folders dialog box.

6. Click OK to close the Services dialog box.

Be sure to compact your Personal Folder file regularly -- especially if you've just eliminated a lot of old files from your Outlook folders.