Print emails from an .olm archive to PDF
A PDF is what you produce when someone outside your mail system has to read the mail: a lawyer, an auditor, an HR file, a claim. It needs the header block visible, who, to whom, when, what the subject was, and it needs to be stable years from now. This page lays the archive out for printing, one message after another, and your browser's print dialog saves it as a PDF.
The file you get
A print layout of the folders you selected: each message starts on its own page with a header block (From, To, Cc, Date, Subject), the body below it, and a line listing the names and sizes of any attachments. Choose "Save as PDF" in the print dialog to keep it.
Steps
- Get the .olm out of Outlook for Mac first: Tools tab → Export, tick what you want, Continue, save the file. If Export is greyed out you are in the new Outlook; switch the New Outlook toggle off, top right, and it comes back.
- Drop the
.olmon this page. It is read by JavaScript in your browser tab; the file never leaves your machine. - Select the folder, the date range or the specific messages you need. A whole archive makes an unwieldy PDF; a folder or a month is the usual unit.
- Click Print / Save as PDF.
- In the print dialog choose Save as PDF on macOS, or Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows. Switch on Headers and footers so every page carries a page number and the print date.
What carries over
- The full header block of each message, printed, not just the sender's display name
- The body with its formatting, images inline where the message had them
- Attachment names and sizes listed under the message
- Original dates, in UTC, labelled as UTC so a reader cannot misread them
- A page break between messages, so nothing runs together
Good to know
- The PDF reproduces what is in the archive. It is not a certified or forensic record: keep the original
.olmunchanged as well, because that is the primary document and this is a readable copy of it. - Attachments are listed by name, not embedded in the PDF. Export the same folder to EML if you need the attachment files themselves.
- Very long selections print slowly. A few thousand messages at a time is comfortable; a whole multi-gigabyte archive is not.
- Outlook writes times in UTC but leaves the time zone off the timestamp. Every date here is read as UTC, so nothing shifts by your offset, a common fault in other converters.
- Microsoft has never published the
.olmformat. Mail, attachments, contacts and calendar entries are read from the XML Outlook writes; unusual items (notes, tasks, journal entries) are skipped in this version.
Questions
Why print through the browser instead of downloading a PDF?
Your browser already has a PDF printer that handles pagination, page numbers and fonts, and it keeps the whole job on your own machine. Downloading a PDF we generated would mean shipping a PDF engine into the page for a worse result.
Can I make one PDF per message instead of one long file?
Print the messages one at a time, or export to EML and print from your mail app. A batch "one PDF per message" export is the feature we are most often asked for; it is not in this version.
Are the timestamps the sender's time or mine?
UTC, labelled as such. Outlook stores its timestamps in UTC but omits the time zone, which is why other converters silently shift dates by your offset. Printing UTC makes the record unambiguous.
Will the PDF hold up in a dispute?
It shows headers, dates and content faithfully, which is usually what is asked for. Whether a printout is accepted is a question for the lawyer running the matter; keep the original archive file either way.
Can I leave out the header block?
No. The header is the reason to print mail rather than screenshot it; a message without its headers is not a record of anything.