I regularly want to be able to copy or move groups of messages from
Tbird on my computer (ver. 2.0.0.22 running under Win XP) to Outlook
Express on another computer on the same home network.  My searches
suggest that this can be done using ImportExport Tools, IMAPSize or
mbx2eml, but I'm a bit chary about trying any of them without clear
instructions and/or some reports based on past experience.

Has anyone used any of these (or any other techniques or extensions) to
import into OE from Tbird?  Any pros or cons for any of them?

All help gratefully received.

Lindsay Graham
Canberra, Australia

That isn't going to be very smooth.  I would figure out some other way
to accomplish the same process.

Think about the underlying structure.  OE's system is a proprietary
database which folderfiles are compressed in a proprietary compression
algorithm, while its individual messages are 'flat' text files like
Tbird's individual .eml files.

Tbird's system of folderfiles such as email is simply flat concatenated
'stacks' of .mbox messages, no proprietary database organized by the
folders.dbx system and no proprietary compression scheme.

Therefore the best way to integrate them - old messages - is by handling
individual messages;  whereas the best way to integrate them - new
messages - is by having an IMAP email provider mailbox for synchrony.

Rather than state that you want to be able to copy or move messages, why
don't you state exactly what you are trying to accomplish.  Maybe it can
be accomplished with IMAP.

--
Mike Easter

Thanks for the explanation, Mike.  However, I'm not sure that I
understand your last 2 paras.  What do you mean by 'old messages' and
'new messages' and
'having an IMAP email provider mailbox for synchrony'?

I regularly come across situations where I want to copy or move messages
from one user to another.  The current example is: at home, my wife uses
OE on her desktop computer and I use Tbird on a netbook.  When we
travel, we both use Tbird on the netbook, but on our return, we want to
be able to move her messages from Tbird on the netbook to OE on her
desktop.  I know there are other possible ways of achieving the same end
(eg, she could use webmail when we travel, or she could switch to Tbird
on her desktop), but I don't want to go down either of those paths just
at the moment.

And what do you mean 'maybe it can be accomplished with IMAP'?

Lindsay

On 04.08.2009 15:39, CET - what odd quirk of fate caused  Lindsay Graham
to generate the following:? :

don't you have the ISP server set to "leave messages on the server" for
your wife's account... that way, she should be able to d/l them back
home, because OE won't have them marked as downloaded/read/whatever....

another way would be to mark the messages and forward them to her ISP.
You can easily do that by COPYING or MOVING her messages to the Laptop
"Drafts" folder. At home, mark all her messages in the Drafts folder and
click Messages>>Forward
.... and hope that she didn't get a hundred or so, as you have to send
each message seperately!

reg

reg

Yabbut;  I recommend that individuals including husband and wife be
individual, not merged like siamese twins.  In fact sometimes one
meatspace person may be/have multiple identities.  As a separate
husband-wife persona, it - the union - can be one;  like separate and
joint bank accounts.

Sometimes an email may be sent from the joint account;  sometimes from
the separate account;  sometimes a joint account or the other's separate
account may be copied on an issue or an issue handled with the joint
account.

If your email provider were such as gmail for example, you could use an
IMAP account instead of POP and synchronize the netbook and desktop.

Yes;  that's another strategy.  Personally I'm no big fan of webmail.  I
just don't like editing/typing with so much apparatus between me and the
page, ie webbrowser webserver webapp.  That's a little too 'cloudy' for
my taste.

More likely *she* doesn't want someone else telling her what kind of
app/interface to use.  :-)  I wouldn't.

An imap mailserver account has folders of its email which folders can be
integrated/synchronized with multiple clients such as Tbird and OE.

If you get a free account such as gmail which has IMAP, you can
experiment with it and see how it works.  It is very good about solving
computer when you travel and another at home and yet another on this
home computer over here.

The wikipedia description of IMAP isn't sufficiently illustrative for my
tastes -- maybe you will find gmail's imap help more useful http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe[..]   or http://snipr.com/oog5v   Getting started with IMAP for Gmail - What is
IMAP?

--
Mike Easter

Easy, bundle the group of messages as an attachment to another message
and send them to the other computer.

NOTE: Of course you must NOT check your mail again on your computer
until the other has received the message with the attachments.

Another NOTE: That's one method suggested in the Mozilla help files and
I know from experience it works well.

--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://improve-usenet.org

FWIT I think that Reg's idea is the simplest.  Set her account on your
netbook to leave the messages on the server.  Then when she gets home OE
will download all the messages.  The only drawback I can see to that is
any replies will not download unless her reply from the netbook includes
a bcc to herself.  I use this method for my portable TB when I travel.
Works well for me, at least so far.
djb

I have used IMAPSize successfully, consistent with the following:

http://www.broobles.com/imapsize/th2outlook.php

It is a bit long and tedious, but in my case at least, the conversion
worked.

--
Best regards
Gord McFee

I've been away for a while, so apologies for the delay in replying.  For
relatively small groups of messages (which is all I'm dealing with at
the moment), your method works beautifully, XS11E.  Thanks very much.

Lindsay Graham