Am I in ANSI or UNICODE format?

UNICODE format is the new pst-file format used in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. Previous versions of Outlook were using ANSI format. For backwards compatibility reasons, Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 also support the ANSI format.

To see in which format your pst-file is;

1. Choose File-> Data File Management
2. Double click on the pst-file you want to check
3. Look at the “Format:” field;
   If it says “Personal Folders File” it means that you are in UNICODE format.
   I it says “Personal Folders File (97 - 2002)” it means you are in ANSI format.

Although the format change to UNICODE is mainly for international character support, the end-user benefit is that your pst-files can now grow as large as 20GB and even larger.

Related Categories; Accounts, Background info, Configuring, Installing, Mail Reading