From Thunderbird/Mozilla to Outlook 2003 (TB2.0/Outlook2003)

Topic

New Reply

Guess what: our IT department planned a migration to Outlook 2003… and Mozilla mail/Thunderbird won’t be allowed anymore.
I suppose I’ll loose all my tags… so consider creating a number of subfolders …_Blue, …_Red etc and sort there the ‘to do’, ‘important’, etc mails in… so I can easily tag them ‘back’ afterwards…
Any other issues I should worry about or prepare myself for?
Hasse

Reply | Quote

Replies

Outlook has no option to import from Thunderbird, and Thunderbird does not have an export feature that allows you to export mail into a format that Outlook understands.

For a method of getting your mail from Thunderbird to Outlook see http://www.broobles.com/imapsize/th2outlook.php%5B/url%5D
For other methods see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_mail_into…)_or_Apple_Mail[/url]

Reply | Quote

FYI… So far, the migration (included a migration from an IMAP to an exchange server) has been successful.
What I needed to work around:
– redefining filters/rules rules and warnings: cumbersome! TB let you write your own. OL offers a wizard with off course less options,…
– you can’t close a message opened in a seperate window with CTRL+W;
– each time you select a(nother) folder, it shows the first mail in the preview pane and marks it ‘read’… while I rather like to limit distractions and decide for myself when I’ll read which messages (and hence have them marked unread)… This default preview pane setting – has to be set (off) manually for each folder. Fortunately, using Options – Other – Preview Pane) you can keep your messages ‘Unread’ if they’re only shown in the Preview pane… (or ‘read’ only after X seconds – but that was no solution in my case).
– you can’t hide the favourite folders pane – but fortunately you can minimize it.
– no ability to define your own tags (now ‘categories’) and assign several to the same message
– no quick search text box (TB right upper corner);

Nice:
– having several accounts opened at the same time in the left pane, presented as folders one below the other (hadn’t figured out yet if & how that can be done in TB)

Reply | Quote

>redefining filters/rules rules and warnings: cumbersome! TB let you write your own. OL offers a wizard with off course less options…

True, these ‘abilities’ in Outlook are dumbed down, but getting into some of the advanced and SQL tabs can help with searches/filters, and Rules can be extended by VBA using the “Run a script’ option – there are some examples in the Outlook Forum

> each time you select a(nother) folder, it shows the first mail in the preview pane and marks it ‘read’

There’s a difference in Outlook between AutoPreview and Reading Pane – I prefer to turn off Preview Pane (which also operates on Calendar items), and use Reading Pane – options for these items are under View. I thought that Tools | Options | Other | Reading Pane, clear the second checkbox should fix your problem – but perhaps not if you are using AutoPreview.

>This default preview pane setting – has to be set (off) manually for each folder

If you change this via View | Arrange By | Current | Customize Current | Other settings, AutoPreview section of the dialog | Apply, it should be propagated to all folders using this View. (Certain setting changes will propagated to the current folder and all subfolders, and new folders will inherit parent settings – it’s sometime hard to figure out what will happen in Outlook.)

Fear not, you’ll find plenty of other Outlook Annoyances! So come over to the Outlook Forum and complain.

Reply | Quote

(lol) thanks for the tips and invitation – see you around

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

– you can’t close a message opened in a seperate window with CTRL+W;

---

[/indent]
OK – shame on me – this one shouldn’t have been so hard: ‘ESC’ does the trick
Thanks to: Windows, Browser & Outlook shortcuts (pdf)

Reply | Quote

May be too late to be of use, but see some of the information AlanMiller has in this thread.

Reply | Quote