-Copyright (c) 2001-2003 by Greg Lindahl +Copyright (c) 2001-2004 by Greg Lindahl
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@ Outlook to talk to IMAP servers if it's in Exchange mode.
1.3: Yet more minor fixes.
+1.4: Information about TNEF stuff from Scott Phelps (thanks!)
+
A list of conversion utilities, many commercial, may be found at:
@@ -112,9 +114,9 @@ mailboxes -- but the only solid report I've gotten was that
attachments were not converted, so if they matter to you, don't use
this method.
-I found some documentation on the Ximian Evolution
-website. I haven't tried this since I don't have a Windows machine
-anymore. But, here's what they say to do:
+There is some documentation on the Ximian Evolution website. I haven't
+tried this since I don't have a Windows machine anymore. But, here's
+what they say to do:
Run Mozilla Mail
@@ -278,16 +280,18 @@ right-click on the folder name and select the "Copy" option. For the
destination, pick your Linux server at the bottom of the list.
+
However, life isn't quite that simple. Outlook supports folders
-containing folders which also contain messages. The Linux IMAP server
-does not support that; a folder is either a regular file containing
-messages, or a directory containing subdirectories and files. So if
-you have folders in Outlook with both messages and subfolders, you
-can't copy the entire tree over to the Linux IMAP server. Another
-incompatibility of the Linux IMAP server is that you have to tell it
-in advance if a new folder will contain subfolders or messages. You do
-this by appending a slash (/) to the folder name when you create
-it. This slash will disappear when the folder is created.
+containing folders which also contain messages. Linux IMAP servers do
+not support that (at least those using Mailbox format); a folder is
+either a regular file containing messages, or a directory containing
+subdirectories and files. So if you have folders in Outlook with both
+messages and subfolders, you can't copy the entire tree over to the
+Linux IMAP server. Another incompatibility of the Linux IMAP server is
+that you have to tell it in advance if a new folder will contain
+subfolders or messages. You do this by appending a slash (/)
+to the folder name when you create it. This slash will disappear when
+the folder is created.
So, in order to copy a tree of folders to the Linux IMAP server, first
@@ -315,6 +319,24 @@ also one extra message per folder which is a (useless) header.
line, which contains the envelope address of the email. Fortunately
you don't actually need that information.)
+
+
+An additional wrinkle applies regarding attachments. Microsoft
+sometimes bundles together several attachments into a ms-tnef
+attachment; TNEF stands for Transport Neutral Encapsulation
+Format. This attachment contains several mime-encoded attachments. I
+was lucky that my mail folders didn't contain any of these -- they
+seem to be created when people send you "Rich Text Format" email -- it
+contains two alternatives, one in plain text and the other a
+TNEF-encapsulated version of the message in rich text plus any
+attachments.
+
+
+
+Fortunately, there are some ways to unpack TNEF attachments.
+One is the tnef project hosted on sourceforge, the other is
+ktnef, which is a part of KDE.
+
Once you've transferred all of your email, you will want to deinstall
@@ -336,3 +358,4 @@ Voila! You have taken another step towards a Microsoft-free lifestyle.
+