How do I import contacts from Outlook 2003and preserve categories?

[levanah10]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

Yes, this question was asked before, but the answer given in Oct. 2008 doesn't help me. I have several hundred contacts to convert.

Outlook2Mac, as far as I can tell, does *not* preserve categories; it simply puts them in the "notes" field. (It's a very useful utility for almost everything else, however. I also recommend Aid4Mail to deal specifically with email.)

Importing a .csv file of my Outlook contact data doesn't preserve categories either; there's no "categories" field on the left hand window to map any outlook fields to. Unless I'm missing something. (This import method has additional problems if you've ever used Outlook's "notes" field for actual notes, and used carriage returns -- which I have.)

The "Export-Import Entourage 1310" scripts from Paul Berkowitz, referred to in the previous answer to this message, appear to run only on PPC macs, and were written for older versions of Outlook and Entourage.

Same for abfiller.app, which is supposed to preserve categories while moving from a .pst file to the Apple address book -- it apparently only runs on PPC macs.

SO -- what do I do?

I've created categories in Entourage that are designed to exactly map to my Outlook categories. But after googling all afternoon, I see no way to import my contacts, *with* their categories, into Entourage. <SIGH>

I *could* use Outlook2Mac and hand-categorize each of my several hundred contacts. But I'd *really* rather not!

Levanah (a frustrated pc-to-mac switcher)

[Speaking of frustration, I'm already resigned to the lack of a journal feature in Entourage, and needing to convert all my journal entries to notes with a "journal" header in order to link them to contacts. <sigh again> But this really, really should work better!]

 

[Diane Ross]

On 2/15/09 4:29 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

See if Mail2Mac has the categories function. I think it has a demo period.
It's $19.95.

<http://www.detto.com/mail-2-mac-help.html>

MessageSave preserves attachments, sender email addresses, message
timestamps, multiple languages. $29.95 USD with current discount.

Export/Import Outlook email to Mac Apple Mail, Entourage, etc
<http://www.techhit.com/outlook/export_import_outlook_mac.html>

Have you looked at syncing to a program like Plaxo and see if the categories
carry over? It's free. Cross platform.

<http://www.plaxo.com/downloads/mac>

Let me know if any of these work for you. I'm supposed to be beta testing
Mail2Mac soon. The new version is supposed to be improved. If none of the
other suggestions don't work, I could try your data in the beta or try to
get you on the beta.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[levanah10]

Diane,

Thanks so much for your quick response. As a PC-to-Mac switcher, I'm having a terrible time finding a stable Mac-based program (or programs, though I'd prefer a single app) that suit my current needs. I need to access lots of older email *and* their attachments, and I also need to be able to track all interactions with a particular contact (as Outlook would enable me to do if I used it for email in addition to contacts/calendar/journaling). Right now, I'm still using Eudora-Win for email, Outlook for everything else, running on a Parallels VM on my Mac. But Parallels has its own limitations (particularly with backup) so I wanted to move to an all-Mac solution if I could. But trying to find a Mac-based email/contacts/calendar/journaling program, or combination of programs, that does what I need it to do has been an exercise in frustration!

At 11:26 PM 2/15/2009, you wrote:
On 2/15/09 4:29 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

See if Mail2Mac has the categories function. I think it has a demo period.
It's $19.95.

<http://www.detto.com/mail-2-mac-help.html&gt <http://www.detto.com/mail-2-mac-help.html&gt>;

I'll check it out -- I was dissuaded from looking because of the "mail" part of its name; I already have Aid4Mail, which solves my email transfer problems well enough. (While I'm currently using Outlook for calendaring, contacts, and the "journal" function for notes of phone calls and meetings, I've always used Eudora-Win for email. Aid4Mail converts Eudora-Win email to either Entourage or AppleMail format perfectly, without having to go through Outlook first.)

MessageSave preserves attachments, sender email addresses, message
timestamps, multiple languages. $29.95 USD with current discount.

Same question -- as far as I can tell, MessageSave is only talking about email. Their more expensive program that transfers contacts, does *not* mention whether categories are preserved.

Export/Import Outlook email to Mac Apple Mail, Entourage, etc
<http://www.techhit.com/outlook/export_import_outlook_mac.html&gt <http://www.techhit.com/outlook/export_import_outlook_mac.html&gt>;

My question here is -- what about Outlook 2003 to Entourage 2008? All the documentation refers ONLY to earlier versions of both programs, and also implies that these scripts work only with Power PC Macs. (Indeed, I tried one on a test contact, and the program crashed. But that could possibly be because I've never before used scripts.)

Have you looked at syncing to a program like Plaxo and see if the categories
carry over? It's free. Cross platform.

<http://www.plaxo.com/downloads/mac&gt <http://www.plaxo.com/downloads/mac&gt>;

No, I haven't tried this. I'll check it out.

Let me know if any of these work for you. I'm supposed to be beta testing
Mail2Mac soon. The new version is supposed to be improved. If none of the
other suggestions don't work, I could try your data in the beta or try to
get you on the beta.

Thanks for the offer! I may take you up on it. But I'm once again considering giving up on Entourage - for every lack I solve, another one is popping up that I wasn't aware of. (No journaling; hair-pulling data migration; reportedly highly unstable database with no easy access to archived data; and now -- a minor point to some, but major to me -- no read receipts, either outgoing or incoming! Yes, I know they're not reliable indicators in general, but l have a long-established specific routine using them, that *is* helpful to me. (e.g., many of our regular correspondents always return them; if I don't see their receipts, it means they're not available until those receipts get returned -- or some aspect of email is broken.)

I know you're not Microsoft -- thanks for your patience with my (and others') complaints. And even more, thanks for your willingness to help with workarounds.

Levanah Tenen

 

[Beccus]

I used TechHit's MessageSave app to migrate my mails and contacts from MS
Outlook 2003 to MS Entourage and to Mail on my iMac. It works very well, it
is easy to use and preserves all details, attachments and sub-folder info.

See demo on website http://www.techhit.com/messagesave/

Howbs.

 

[levanah10]

Beccus,

I used TechHit's MessageSave app to migrate my mails and contacts from MS
Outlook 2003 to MS Entourage and to Mail on my iMac. It works very well, it
is easy to use and preserves all details, attachments and sub-folder info.

See demo on website <http://www.techhit.com/messagesave/>

Howbs.

 

[levanah10]

I need to access lots of older email *and* their attachments, and I also need
to be able to track all interactions with a particular contact (as Outlook
would enable me to do if I used it for email in addition to
contacts/calendar/journaling).

Since I've never used Outlook, I'm not familiar with the terminology. Even
Mac users get confused over terms like Identity and User. Exactly what is
journaling?
[/QUOTE]
Outlook has a module called "Journal" that doesn't exist in Entourage. Essentially it is a dated set of records of events associated with each contact. (Journal can have other functions, but this is how I and many others use it.) When I take notes on a phone call, I open a Journal window, associate it with the appropriate contact(s), specify that it's a phone call, set the timer going, and record my notes in the text-entry field. The same for meeting notes; meeting invitations; task requests; or even general notes of work I did. Here's the beauty -- when I open the "details" window for a contact, there's a tab called "activities". Open that, and Outlook searches for and lists absolutely everything I've associated with that contact (including, if I wish, email and other info that's not part of the "Journal" module). It's really necessary to have something like this when you deal in phone-based customer contact.

For using Entourage, I found a workaround posted on the internet using linked notes with a heading including the word "Journal", and the possibility of importing my existing journal entries using a .csv file. So that's what I was going to try.

When you brought over your mail, did you not get attachments?

Yes, I did get attachments -- Aid4Mail is good at that. Email transferred fine. It's my contacts -- transferred with Outlook2Mac -- that lost their categories.

If you contact me off list, we can phone conference this and maybe I'll get
a better understanding of exactly what you are trying to do and find a way
to do this in Entourage. Send me an email:



For anyone following along, if I ask someone to contact me, it's free, but
if you just write me for personal help, expect to pay for services.


It's not a PPC Mac, but they don't activate under Leopard. Paul has been an
MVP for years and is a prolific scripter. However, this past year his job
has become so demanding that he had to leave the MVP program and has not
found time to update the scripts. If you had access to Tiger, you could use
the scripts. Leopard broke a lot of scripts

Aha! Makes sense. --And as it happens I *do* have access to Tiger, so I will try Paul Berkowitz's scripts using that machine before taking more of your time. I assume I just take my Outlook .pst file, port it to the Mac running Tiger, and run the scripts on that machine? (Yes, the Tiger machine also has Entourage installed.)

Thank you *very* much for your patience and help.

Levanah

 

[Diane Ross]

Aha! Makes sense. --And as it happens I *do* have access to Tiger, so I will
try Paul Berkowitz's scripts using that machine before taking more of your
time. I assume I just take my Outlook .pst file, port it to the Mac running
Tiger, and run the scripts on that machine? (Yes, the Tiger machine also has
Entourage installed.)

Paul includes a read me that should explain how to use the scripts to import
the PC files. I've never had a need to do that so I'm not sure. Here's a
snippet of the instructions from the read me.

All the Outlook Converters are "droplets": you drag and drop the relevant
file onto the script icon, and the script runs and converts the file, or you
can double-click them and find the file when asked.

Let us know if this works for you.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[Diane Ross]

Thanks for the explanation. I can see how valuable this can be.