I was clearing out my emails inbox when I stumbled across something I had forgotten about. Archived PMs.

I don't know how many people know about this, or even use it, but with the loss of server information, I think this merits a blog entry.

This handy little feature archives your Personal Messages and sends them to you in an email.

To create an archive of your Personal Messages:

1: Open up your control panel.

2: In the Messenger block at the top left you see all of your options concerning your PMs. Click on "Archive Messages", its the one that is second from the bottom.

3: You are then given options for what and how to archive your messages. The options are:

Archive from which folder? This one allows you to choose if you want to back up your inbox, outbox, or both folders.

Archive messages received in the last This allows you to choose what to back up to the point in time you specify.

Number of messages to archive Pretty self-explanatory. You can choose to back up anywhere from 5 to 50 messages at a time.

Delete messages after archiving? Selecting yes deletes the messages you are archiving. No leaves them in your inbox/outbox.

Compile datafile as You have two choices for how you want to receive the archived messages: An importable MS Excel data file, or an HTML page. I recommend saving as an HTML page.

You should then receive an Email to the address you have tied to you BZP account. Open it up, and save the attached file to your computer, or just keep it in your email until you need it.