I may not be asking the question correctly.  After problems with word, I de-installed MS Office 2011 and completely reinstalled according to the instructions given.

The next to last step in the de-install instructions (step 10 in 2398768) was "Move the Microsoft User Data folder to the desktop."  The reinstall article in 2539384 installed office without any reference to the old data.

When I open outlook, it does not know the two accounts I had used, nor does it show the email in those files.

I BELIEVE that somehow I need to move an identity file?   Or do I just need to create the accounts to my live.com and gmail.com and it will copy all the data from the cloud servers to my mac?  In my own terms, I want to open outlook and see the emails that are still on my computer somewhere.  If it's a matter of copying the identity file, can I get the specifics of which file and which location?

I was referred to an article to rebuild the data file, but it seems to me it first needs to know which data file to use and where it is.

ONCE everything is working again, can I delete the entire folder on the desktop?

Half the problem is somehow expressing the question properly and I hope I've done that.