Gmail and Outlook, for your records
How to save Gmail or Outlook emails as PDFs for your records — headers, dates and attachments intact
Whether it is an insurer asking for the correspondence, a matter closing, or your own records, the job is the same: get the emails out of the mailbox as files, and turn them into documents that still carry who sent what, when, with which attachment. Free routes first.
First, get the message out as a file — free, from either service
Gmail: Download message
Open the email, click the ⋮ menu at the top right of the message, and choose Download message. Gmail saves a .eml file — the complete message, headers and attachments included, exactly as it arrived.
You get: the original message as a file. Keep these; they are the record. Not included: a PDF.
Outlook: Save As
Open the email, File → Save As, and keep the Outlook Message Format (.msg). Dragging a message from the list to a folder does the same. On Outlook for Mac, dragging out gives an .eml.
You get: the original message as a file, attachments inside it. Not included: a PDF, and on a computer without Outlook a .msg needs something else to open it.
The print route, and what it loses
Both services will also print an email to PDF directly (Gmail: the print icon; Outlook: File → Print → PDF). That is quick and it is fine for a single message you just want to read later. For a record it has two holes: the attachments are not in the PDF, and the header block is a summary — long recipient lists get cut, and the message's own dates and addressing are reformatted by whichever app printed it.
Then turn the files into PDFs that keep everything
Put the downloaded .eml and .msg files in one folder. Now each needs to become a PDF that carries the header block as the email carried it, the message, and the attachments — matched to the right email, not loose beside it. Doing that by hand from the print route means saving every attachment separately and naming it to match; see the attachments guide for the free way and the tip that makes it survivable.
Where Foldavo fits
Point Foldavo at the folder. Each message — Gmail's .eml and Outlook's .msg alike — becomes a PDF named from the sender, subject and date, with the header block at the top exactly as the email carried it and the attachments embedded inside the same PDF. Choose the ones that belong together, put them in order, and the binder writes them as one PDF. All of it happens on your own computer; your emails are never uploaded. The free trial converts one real email completely; a licence is £59, one-time, for folders, batches and binders. Checkout by Lemon Squeezy.
Being straight with you: Foldavo works from the files you exported. It does not sign in to Gmail or connect to Outlook, and it does not read a live mailbox. Attachments are embedded inside the same PDF and listed in the PDF's attachment panel — they are never opened or executed. Inline JPEG and PNG images are drawn on the page as well; every other attachment stays the file it was, one click away inside the PDF. Text in Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts is rendered; Thai, Indic scripts and emoji are shown as a question mark. Whether a given set of documents meets a particular request is for you and your advisers; Foldavo makes the documents.