[amontague]

Hi,

I'm helping some friends install a new iMac into their small office. They want to use the iMac for their e-mail, so we need to export all their old mail from Outlook Express on Windows 98 to Mail on OS X 10.2.

Has anyone any idea how to do this? If Apple are encouraging people to 'switch' this is a typical hurdle people will have to cross.

There doesn't appear to be an export option from Outlook Express. However, I know that Outlook can import Outlook Express mail. Can Outlook export files that Mail can use?

Thanks

Andrew Montague
www.draiochtweb.com

[fulmer]

hmm. often you can select emails (individual or en masse) and drag them to a folder or desktop. this will create little files with all the email info and attachments in the file.

you may be able to burn these files to disc, copy to the mac, then drag-drop them into OE, outlook, or entourage for Mac. If you don't have entourage (classic or v.X), then I'd drag-drop to OE (classic Mac OS only) first. This should 'import' them (theoretically), then mabye OS X's Mail.app will allow you to import from there (I know it can import from entourage v.X, but I don't know about it doing so from OE.

give it a try, and good luck.

[amontague]

Hi Fulmer,

Thanks for your help. Your advice got me started. However, it is a slow and cumbersome process, particularly if you have a lot of messages. When using Outlook Express (OE) on the Mac to import the messages, before exporting to Mail, each message had to be imported into OE individually. That takes time.

Using Entourage as the middle-man is slightly easier. I was able to select all the messages and drag them into the appropriate folder on Entourage. However, for some reason each mail was then enclosed in its own subfolder, so each mail had to be dragged out of its individual folder and into the appropriate folder.

I'll set out the procedure I followed in case it may help someone else. Perhaps someone can suggest a quicker method. I'd imagine an AppleScript could speed up this process, but I don't know much about AppleScript.

Here is the procedure using Outlook Express on the Mac as the conduit.
1. On the PC create a folder on the desktop to store your messages. Give it an appropriate name, for example when exporting your Inbox mail, call the folder "Inbox". Drag your messages from Outlook Express into the new folder.
2. Transfer the folder via a disk, or the network or the internet to your Mac.
3. Open OE in classic and go to File>import...
4. Select "Import mail from a text file"
5. Choose the message you want to import (one message at a time - this is the bottleneck)
6. When you have imported all your messages from OE on the PC to OE on the Mac, open up Mail in OS X and go to File>import Mailboxes...
7. Choose Outlook Express and follow the directions.

Here's the procedure using Entourage on the Mac
1. On the PC create a folder on the desktop to store your messages. Give it an appropriate name, for example when exporting your Inbox mail, call the folder "Inbox". Drag your messages from Outlook Express into the new folder.
2. Transfer the folder via a disk, or the network or the internet to your Mac.
3. Open Entourage on the Mac
4. Drag all of your messages into an appropriate folder on the Entourage screen. For example, drag all your inbox mail onto the folder called "Inbox".
5. You will find that each message is now within its own subfolder within the "Inbox" folder.
6. If you have the patience, drag each message from its individual folder into the appropriate folder (bottleneck).
7. Open up Mail in OS X and go to File>import Mailboxes...
8. Choose Entourage and follow the directions.

Importing contacts into Address Book from OE on the PC is just as messy. The problem this time is that OE will only allow you to export one vCard at a time.

1. Open OE in Windows and open your Address Book (click on the address book icon)
2. Select File>Export>Business Card (vCard)
3. Repeat this procedure for each contact (bottleneck)
4. Transfer all the vCards from the PC to the Mac
5. Open Address Book: File>Import>vCards...
6. Fortunately Address book allows you to import all of the vCards in one go.

Anyone got any refinements on these techniques. I'm sure lots of people will benefit.

Andrew Montague
www.draiochtweb.com