Microsoft Office - Handling Sars

[clangstaffnhts]

Hello,

 

I've seen a few other threads that don't quite answer my queries so starting a new one for advice.

 

We are a secondary school who is seeing an increasing number of complex SARs/ERRs. Providing emails and other Office 365 content is by far the most challenging aspect of handling requests.

 

CURRENT PROCESS:

 

1. We are currently using Microsoft Purview and the Content Search to find email content and export this as a PST. Before the Purview updates it used to be relatively easy to search for and export emails on mass. This tool used to remove duplicate emails and provide us with a .PST file output. I understand that E-Discovery Premium will be required to remove duplicates now.

 

2. Once the .PST has been exported this is imported into the Outlook Classic 2019 desktop app. I am able to create a single folder with all email content in one place (which is my preference). From the desktop app we can then review, manage and delete specific emails. Once happy with the content remaining, we would export to PDF so that can be redacted as necessary.

 

**ISSUE** Recently it seems further changes have been made and I am unable to print all emails to a single PDF file. I am using the 'Microsoft Print to PDF'. Previously this would print all emails into a single PDF however, it is now prompting me to save each email as a new file instead. Does anyone have any ideas how I can print to a single PDF file again?

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Does anyone have any suggestions how we can improve our process and any solutions to the PDF export option?

[Olliedawg]

We have a similar process to yourself. I've had success with CutePDF Writer to print them all onto one file.

[clangstaffnhts]

1 hour ago, Olliedawg said:

We have a similar process to yourself. I've had success with CutePDF Writer to print them all onto one file.

 

Thanks for the response. Did you have to apply any settings for CuteDPF to produce a single file? I've just tried this but I'm having the same issue.

[Olliedawg]

15 minutes ago, clangstaffnhts said:

 

Thanks for the response. Did you have to apply any settings for CuteDPF to produce a single file? I've just tried this but I'm having the same issue.

I'm fairly sure i just left it as default.. i'll have a look this afternoon & let you know.

[Olliedawg]

Mine seems to just work using the default settings.Outlook 2024 LTSC.

 

Select all the required emails, go to file > print, select CutePDF writer & then print. Takes a while but eventually it loads it into one large file.

[ITGuyNW]

I use premium to narrow it down as much as possible, export as .msg then use a converter to PDF. I then hand these to the data officer.

[rbjames]

I just do everything in the ediscovery area including redacting. I tag files as 'included' (no need for redaction), 'redacted', 'duplicate' and 'operational'. The last SAR returned nearly 4000 files/teams chats/emails but the system is good at spotting email chains and putting the last email of the chain at the top of the list. I then export everything straight from there after writing/committing the redactions. I then recheck the exported files just to be sure.

 

 

Edited July 8 by rbjames

[AndrewJWalls]

On 24/06/2026 at 09:45, clangstaffnhts said:

Does anyone have any suggestions how we can improve our process and any solutions to the PDF export option?

 

Once you get the PSTs, we offer the ability to upload PSTs\MBoxs and they go straight into the redaction tool on Acuity AutoRedact: https://acuityautoredact.com/

 

Things that might also help is that we offer deduplication of all uploaded content (no additional cost) and you don't have to worry about manually converting to PDF. Our tool can ingest PST files, allow them to be redacted by AI and any manual changes you want to make and then export as PDF (along with a file for further editing).

 

If it would help, we'd be happy to run a demo (you can book at https://acuityautoredact.com/booking-calendar-page).

[flipthebit]

If you have the full Adobe Acrobat you can combine multiple PDFs into one.