Joe Tan at Tan Tan Noodles has written up a way to switch from Outlook to Mail.app using the open source utility, libpst , which was originally developed for Linux but runs fine on Mac OSX.

There are already a number of tried and true ways to crack open Outlook’s PST files and make the transition, either using Mozilla or (for Outlook Express users) DbxConv.

Or you could use the shareware utility, O2M (formerly known as Outlook2Mac) which only costs USD 10.

Still, some people get a kick out doing this kind of thing for free, and libpst offers another way.

Joe outlines just twelve steps from downloading the source code, compiling (not as hard as you imagine) and running it, to the end result.

If I had a PST file to hand, I’d try it myself. Fortunately, I don’t.mail.app, apple mail, outlook, outlook express, microsoft, pst files, switching, freeware

Washington Post blogger Brian Krebs uses the recent release of a Windows security patch to fire up the campaign to end HTML email.

He reminds his readers that “viewing your e-mail in anything other than plain text mode is asking for trouble on a Windows computer.”

He then proceeds to list some of the reasons why HTML should be avoided, including better protection against phishing attacks, avoiding “spam touting graphic images from adult Web sites” and not seeing your own HTML emails end up in someone else’s spam folder. (See a much more comprehensive list of reasons on the Free Anti Spam web site.)

Instructions are provided on using plain text in Outlook 2003, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and Opera. These might be useful for Hawk Wings readers in a distressing work environment.

Mail.app users have at least three ways to deal with incoming HTML emails—see an earlier Hawk Wings post, “Viewing HTML messages in Apple Mail“).

I am a fan of the first, most brutal option myself, but I am also a realist. See further King Canute (Wikipedia ).

UPDATE: Nicholas takes a different view . “Arguing that email users should not have access to different fonts or colours is much like arguing that they should still be using the word processors of 1987 as well,” he suggests.

[Thanks, Michael]mail.app, apple mail, windows, outlook, html, plain text, thunderbird, opera, outlook express

Today eight people searched for “incoming mail font size small” without finding a match. Or possibly one determined person searched eight times.

If that’s you, the post you are looking for is “Setting a minimum HTML font size”.

This is a work-around that prevents incoming emails written in Outlook and Outlook Express from appearing in a very small, almost unreadable, font size in Mail.app.

It’s worth finding, especially if your mother insists on using Outlook Express.
email, font size, incoming, HTML, unreadable

As everyone knows, one of the great things about Mail.app is the slick way that it integrates with other OS X apps.

Find the iPhoto picture you want to email, click on the Mail button, and – hey presto – there it is, nicely formatted in a new email and ready to go.

In the spirit of Christmas cheer, here’s an iPhoto hack that gives the same joy to others. iPhoto Mailer Patcher adds the same “optimise and email a picture” support for Claris Emailer, GyazMail, Mailsmith, Outlook Express, PowerMail and QuickMail Pro.

The Mozilla stable, including Thunderbird, miss out because they are not “AppleScriptable” enough for iPhoto to work with them.

iPhoto Mailer Patcher is freeware, comes in various flavours depending on your iPhoto version and is available from the developer’s web site.

Maybe you know some poor soul whose life would be better for finding out about it.

Over at Spinning the Web, you can find an ingenious but complicated method for exporting Mail.app 2.0 emails into Outlook Express 6.0 using Eudora as the middle-man.

Personally, I can’t help thinking that it would easier to use EmailChemy (which is free for a “one off” use) or CosmicSoft’s emlx to mbox converter.

In the next version of Windows, known as “Vista”, Outlook Express is set to become “Windows Mail”.

It will feature advanced spam-handling abilities and better search capabilities with a “search as you type” function. Windows Mail will also have a new way of storing emails as individual files and a new database for indexing them, which will make searching emails outside Windows Mail itself easier. Sounds just like the sort of things one would want in an email client!

Microsoft has released a 46 minute video about Windows Mail. You can watch it here (and read about it on the blog of the development team head, Bryan Starbuck).

(Thanks, DownloadSquad ).windows vista, outlook express, windows mail, email

Reports (and Slashdot commentary on them) that we are in danger of entering a Digitial Dark Age due to a lack of legacy support for formats and media may be overwrought.

All the same, Emailchemy is a life-saver for people who have been using email for a long time and have moved through many clients and platforms.

Emailchemy will convert emails from popular and obsolete email clients into formats that Apple Mail and other clients can read. It converts email from an astonishing range of formats (listed after the jump):

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