If you choose to automatically add Microsoft Office 97 files to the Journal (such as documents, workbooks, or database files), Microsoft Outlook 97 may appear to start slowly.

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The Outlook Journal automatically records a log of user activities. Each of the Office 97 programs provides AutoJournal capabilities, logging to an Outlook Journal entry each time you open, save, or print a document. With the Journal and Outlook 97's Timeline view, you can find information based on when you worked on a document, and not worry about where you saved it or what you named it. To configure Outlook 97 to use the AutoJournal feature, use the Journal tab on the Options dialog box. With this you can add, remove, and edit the types of AutoJournal entries.

If you turn on Outlook AutoJournal for any of the Office 97 programs, Outlook tries to record the Office program's activities directly to the Outlook Journal. When Outlook is not running, the Office program makes a call to Mso97.dll that causes the Journal entry to write to "Offitems.log" in the Windows directory. When Outlook starts, the Journal processes these entries after a Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) idle time of 30 seconds. The quantity of information the Journal has to process effects the time it takes before you gain control of Outlook.

You may decrease the time it takes to start Outlook by using one of these two methods:

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Method 1

Run Outlook in the background while working in other Office applications so that the entries write directly to the Outlook Journal.

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Method 2

Turn off the AutoJournal feature for the Office applications that you do not need to automatically add to the Journal. Follow these steps to turn off the AutoJournal feature for a particular application:

1.	On the Outlook Tools menu, click Options and click the Journal tab.
2.	In the "Also record files from" list, click to clear the Office application for which you no longer want to create automatic Journal entries and click OK.

NOTE: If you force Outlook to exit by pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE, AutoJournal also ends.

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