Save Single Email Message to Multiple Outlook Folders

I use a series of folders to keep my email archive organized. The folders are designed to match the navigational structure of the websites I manage so that emails are easier to locate when needed. The problem is that some emails don't fit neatly within these folders. I'll receive an email, for example, that contains a newsletter to post online and asks to make changes to the about section for the website. Should that email be archived with the messages related to the newsletters section or should it be saved with the about section emails. It finally dawned on me that I don't need to make that sometimes tough decision.

Background

I currently use Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Windows 10. Having access to the emails that have been sent to me over the years has been helpful for answering questions that other people have regarding the decisions made for the websites I manage. The archive has been especially useful for when files go missing, for whatever reason. Having an email archive gives me one more place to potentially use to restore the files.

Solution

To solve the issue mentioned earlier, storing an email in both the "about" and "newsletter" folders, all you need to do is create multiple copies of the message. One way to accomplish this is to use the "Move to…" option that's available when you right-click a message.

First, let's copy the message to the "about" folder using the following steps:

1. Right click the message you want to copy
2. Hover the mouse cursor over Move and click Copy to Folder… (see Figure 1)
3. Locate and select the folder where you want the message to be copied to (e.g. about) and click OK (see Figure 2)

Figure 1. Select the "Copy to Folder…" option

Figure 2. Select where you want to copy the message

If you have more than two folders where you want to save copies of the message, repeat the above steps until you get to the last folder.

For the last folder, the message can be moved using the following steps:

1. Right click the message you want to move
2. Hover the mouse cursor over Move and click Other Folder… (see Figure 3)
3. Locate and select the folder where you want the message to be moved to (e.g. newsletter) and click OK (see Figure 4)

Figure 3. Select the "Other Folder…" option

Figure 4. Select where you want to move the message

Alternate Solution

Alternatively, the messages can be dragged to the folders you want. Normal dragging moves the message to the desired folder. If you hold the Ctrl key while dragging, the message will be copied instead of moved.