How do I save Yahoo email files to DVD?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #93 I look at several ways to save information from an online
email service and back it up safely to your computer or DVD.

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Save Yahoo email to DVD

There are a couple of different ways that I would suggest you approach this.

Print to pdf

If it is simply an email message that you want to preserve – then, while in Yahoo, while you’re looking at that email, use a “print to PDF” function. That will create an actual PDF of the email message on your computer. You can then save it to DVD, or wherever you want to save it.

Backup your email

Another approach is to actually back up your email. That means:

• Install a desktop email program (I typically run Thunderbird)

• Configure it to access your email on Yahoo (usually using IMAP so that the email stays on Yahoo, and is not disturbed, but is also copied down to the PC)

• That then acts as your backup.

You can, then, copy whatever files you like from that backup to your DVD or wherever else you want.

Saving attachments

If the the legal correspondence file that you’re talking about is, in fact, an attachment to an email – you don’t really need to do any of that.

All you need to do is download the attachment and write it to your DVD.

Backing up is best practice

I strongly suggest, in general, that people backup their online accounts.

Using a program like Thunderbird, connected via IMAP to Yahoo, as a way of doing that has a nice side effect. It will download everything to your PC. You can then drag and drop messages around; use “file > save as” to disc; or do whatever you like.

And… you also have this wonderful benefit of having all of your email backed up.

(Transcript lightly edited for readability.)