Microsoft Outlook 2007 to Mozilla Thunderbird and Novell Evolution Email Conversion Guide Author: David Gullett Published: March 18, 2010 Version: 1.0 Copyright 2010, Symmetrix Technologies http://www.symmetrixtech.com Table of Contents A. Introduction 1. Equipment Assumptions 2. Knowledge Assumptions 3. End Result B. Overview of the Procedure C. Installing Thunderbird and Lightning on Windows 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Installation of Thunderbird Installation of Lightning Importing Mail into Thunderbird Importing Addresses into Thunderbird Exporting Calendars from Outlook Importing Calendars into Lightning D. Installing Thunderbird 3 and Lightning on Ubuntu Linux 9.10 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Installation of Thunderbird Installation of Lightning Using Windows to Export Outlook Data Moving the Windows Thunderbird Data to Linux Importing Your Data into Thunderbird on Linux E. Installing Evolution on Windows 1. Installation 2. Importing Data from Outlook F. Installing Evolution on Ubuntu Linux 9.10 1. Installation 2. Copying Your Data from Windows 3. Importing Data into Evolution G. Conclusion
A. Introduction The purpose of this document is to enable a user to migrate from Microsoft Outlook 2007 to Mozilla Thunderbird or Novell Evolution on either Windows or Linux. Each client has particular capabilities so you should choose the one that most closely meets your needs. 1. Equipment Assumptions This guide assumes you have a current installation of MS Outlook 2007 on Windows and optionally an Ubuntu 9.10 Linux system. It is not geared towards Microsoft Exchange but instead a POP3 or IMAP setup. It is possible to use Evolution natively with Exchange but that is outside the scope of this document. 2. Knowledge Assumptions Anyone with basic to intermediate computer knowledge should be able to follow this guide. Additionally you will need the information for your mail server from your ISP. 3. End Result After reading through this document you should be able to switch over from Microsoft Outlook 2007 to an alternate email client on either Linux or Windows. All of your current email, address books and calendar appointments will be available in the new client. B. Overview of the Procedure Thunderbird and Evolution both come with utilities to import your Outlook data. The process for Evolution is a very simple because it can read all of Outlook's PST file data. We'll have to jump through a few more hoops to get all of the data into Thunderbird but it's not too difficult. Mozilla's Thunderbird email client does not come with a calendaring application but there is a free add-on for it called Lightning that performs that function. This guide will also describe how to install it. Important note: the import process for tasks is currently not functional for Thunderbird so it is not described in this document. Importing tasks works perfectly for Evolution. C. Installing Thunderbird and Lightning on Windows 1. Installation of Thunderbird The installation of Mozilla's Thunderbird on Windows is exceedingly easy. Open this link with your browser and download the latest version (3.0.3 as of this writing): http://www.getthunderbird.com. Once the download is completed run the file and begin the setup process. When the installation is finished you'll see a wizard that will help you configure your email accounts. Enter your name and email address In the proper blanks and select Continue. You can optionally save your password here.
Thunderbird will then attempt to determine your mail server settings with a variety of protocols and encryption. If it fails you ll need to go enter your settings manually in the boxes below the click on Re-test Configuration. If it s particularly troublesome you ll need to click on the Manual Setup button and do everything yourself. The procedure for this is documented at http://www.mozillamessaging.com. Click on Create Account once you re done. 2. Installation of Lightning It's important to note again that Thunderbird does not include a calendar but there is an free add-on called Lightning that will provide complete calendaring functionality. To install the Lightning calendar add-on for Thunderbird, open the Thunderbird application and select Tools/Addons. Type Lightning in the search box and hit enter. Make sure Lightning is selected (the current version is 1.0-beta1 as of this writing) and click Add to Thunderbird then click Install. Restart Thunderbird and you will have a new drop down menu called Events and Tasks where you can access the calendar and tasks (opening
these will create new tabs in the Thunderbird application.) 3. Importing Mail into Thunderbird To import your old Outlook emails into Thunderbird select Tools/Import from within Thunderbird. On the next screen you can select to Import Everything or select Address Books, Mail, Settings or Filters individually. For now, just select Mail and click Next. You can import from a variety of other email clients but we re going to select Outlook. Once you ve clicked on next Thunderbird will begin importing all your Outlook data. If you have a large amount of email this can be quite a lengthy process. Once the import process is complete you will receive a message similar to this:
If there are any problems with the Outlook storage file (a damaged PST), Thunderbird will notify you with the names of the folders with which it had issues. The repair process is out of the scope of this document but you can attempt to fix the PST using Microsoft's recommended practices (search on Google for scanpst.exe) and then start over with the import if you need the skipped data. 4. Importing Addresses into Thunderbird This is easy repeat the previous step but select Address Books instead of Mail. After the process is complete if you click on the Address Book icon in Thunderbird you'll see all of your imported contacts. 5. Exporting Calendars from Outlook The next step is to export all of your calendar data from Outlook into a file that we can use to import into Lightning. Open your existing Outlook installation and select File/Import and Export. Then select Export to a File and click Next.
Select Comma Separated Values (Windows) and click Next. Scroll down in the list to highlight your Calendar folder and click Next. Type in a filename and location to save the exported data.
Click Next, then click Finish. The export process will then ask you for the date range of the calendar data that you want to export. Be sure you set it wide enough so you don t miss anything that you want to keep.
6. Importing Calendars into Lightning To import the calendar data, open Thunderbird, select the Events and Tasks menu, then click Import. Browse to the location where you saved the exported Outlook data. You ll need to select Outlook Comma Separated Values in the drop down box to see the file. Select the file and click Open.
All of your appointments will then be imported. If you select Events and Tasks and then Calendar you ll be able to see them as shown in the following image. That's it! You now have a fully functional copy of Thunderbird on Windows containing your Outlook data. D. Installing Thunderbird 3 and Lightning on Ubuntu Linux 9.10 1. Installation of Thunderbird Ubuntu 9.10 does not come with Thunderbird 3 by default - it only provides version 2. You'll need to add a new download repository and manually install Thunderbird 3 by using the following commands from a terminal prompt. Enter your password after typing the first command below in order to give permissions to install the software. sudo add apt repository ppa:ubuntu mozilla daily/ppa sudo aptitude update sudo aptitude install thunderbird 3.0 sudo aptitude install thunderbird 3.0 gnome support To start Thunderbird, click on Applications, Internet then Shredder 3 Mail/News (this is the development name of Thunderbird. Ubuntu 10.04 will come with Thunderbird 3 by default.) For the remainder of this document we'll just use the name Thunderbird rather than Shredder.
When you first start Thunderbird you will be prompted to create an account. Enter your name and email address in their respective blanks and click Continue. Thunderbird will then attempt to automatically determine your mail server settings. If it fails you ll need to go enter your settings manually in the boxes below the click on Re-test Configuration. If it s particularly troublesome you ll need to click on the Manual Setup button and do everything yourself. The procedure for this is documented at http://www.mozillamessaging.com. Click on Create Account once you re done and exit Thunderbird. 2. Installation of Lightning Once again, Thunderbird does not include a calendar but there is an add-on called Lightning that will provide complete calendaring functionality. To install the Lightning calendar add-on for Thunderbird in Linux, open Thunderbird and select Tools/Add-ons. Type Lightning in the search box and hit enter. Make sure Lightning is selected (it's version 1.0 beta1 as of this writing) and click Add to Shredder then click Install. Restart Thunderbird and you will have a calendar in the main window.
3. Using Windows to Export Outlook Data To convert your Outlook 2007 data files to Thunderbird 3 on Linux you will first need to follow the entire setup procedure outlined in section C of this document. The reason for using this method is that the Windows version of Thunderbird can import most of the data directly from your Outlook files. Once you have a working copy of Thunderbird and Lightning on Windows it's a simple process to move your data to your Linux machine. When you've completed section C continue with the steps below. 4. Moving the Windows Thunderbird Data to Linux Open Thunderbird on your Windows machine and select Tools/Account Settings then select Local folders. In the Local Directory box you should see a lengthy path that shows exactly where your imported Outlook email resides in Thunderbird on the Windows machine. It should look something like this: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\vbde47x7.default\Mail\Local Folders Make a note of this path and then browse to the Profiles folder (in the above path). The 'vbde76x7.default' folder is a randomly generated name but it will be in a similar format. We'll be using ' vbde76x7.default' in the rest of the examples just substitute your folder name for it. Copy the 'vbde46x7.default' folder to your home directory on your Linux PC. 5. Importing Your Data into Thunderbird on Linux Make sure Thunderbird is not running then browse to your home directory and open the.thunderbird-3.0 directory. You may have to turn on the ability to see hidden files in Gnome to find the.thunderbird-3.0 directory. You can do this by selecting View/Show Hidden Files in Gnome's File Browser. You should see a folder with another randomly generated filename. We're going to use 's4qkxj3y.default' in this example. Copy the entire contents of your Windows Thunderbird profile folder to your Linux Thunderbird profile folder. Using the examples above, you would copy the contents of 'vbde76x7.default' to 's4qkxj3y.default'. Start Thunderbird and you should see all of your email in Local Folders in a sub-folder called Outlook Import. You'll also have your imported addresses and calendar appointments in their standard locations. Example screen shots follow.
E. Installing Evolution on Windows 1. Installation While Evolution is primarily a Linux email client, a company named DIP Consultants has ported it to Windows. You can download the client here: http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/ If you find it useful please consider giving them a donation. The current version of this writing is 2.28.2. When you double-click on Evolution-2.28.2-1.msi and agree to the next few prompts it will automatically install into the C:\Program Files\DIP Consultants, LLC\Evolution directory (you don't get a choice of drive letter or path). After the installation is finished it's time to run Evolution and set up your email account. Click on Start/Programs/DIP Consultants, LLC/Evolution/Evolution. The Evolution setup assistant will then begin. Click forward through the first couple of screens until you get to the following prompt where you can begin to enter your email account information. Put your name and email address in the first two blanks and click Forward.
You'll need to enter your incoming mail server on the next screen. Example entries are below but you'll need to use the information given to you by your email hosting service. Click forward once you've filled in all the blanks.
It's important to change some settings on the following screen. By default, Evolution will not check for email periodically so we recommend checking the Check for new messages box and changing the 10 minutes value to something that matches your preference.
On this screen you'll need to enter your outgoing mail server information. Again, this should be provided by your ISP.
This is really just a placeholder name for the account so you can call it whatever you want. We usually just leave it as the email address for easy reference. Click Forward once you've filled in the blank.
Evolution will then start and you'll be presented with an empty mail window. To make it more Outlook-like you'll need to make two changes under the View menu. Make sure View/Layout/Show Side Bar is checked and then make sure that View/Switcher Appearance/Hide Buttons is unchecked. There are quite a options under the View so you can customize Evolution the way you like it. The resulting view as described in this step looks like this:
2. Importing Data from Outlook Now let's import the Outlook data into Evolution. Click on File/Import to start the Evolution Import Assistant and then click Forward. Click on Import from a single file and click Forward: Select your Outlook PST file. By default, it's hidden pretty deeply in the Windows directory structure. Browse to the following location in Windows XP (you may have to turn on the ability to see hidden and system files first): C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. For Vista/Windows 7, browse to this location: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. Once you've selected the file, click Forward.
You can now select what you'd like to import. Only Mail is checked by default but if you have Address Books (Contacts in Outlook), Appointments (Calendars in Outlook) or Tasks you can select them here. Click Forward once you've made your choices. After the import which can be very time consuming depending on the amount of the data you have you'll be presented with the main Evolution interface. Your imported email will be in a sub-folder in your Inbox called Personal Folders. The Contacts and Tasks will be in their standard locations. Example screen shots follow.
F. Installation of Evolution on Ubuntu Linux 9.10 1. Installation Evolution is installed by default on a standard Ubuntu Linux 9.10 desktop system. You can start it by going to the Applications menu under Internet/Evolution Mail or Office/Evolution Mail and Calendar. In case you don't have it available you can install it by following these steps: 1. Under the System Menu, select Administration and then Synaptic Package Manager. You'll then be prompted to enter your password. 2. In the Synaptic Package Manager, type Evolution in the Quick Search box. A list of matching packages should appear below. 3. Click on the box next to the package labeled evolution. A pop-up menu will appear. Click on Mark for Installation. 4. Another box will appear that ask you to approve other required packages. Click on Mark. 5. Click on the box next to the package labeled evolution-indicator. A pop-up menu will appear. Click on Mark for Installation. 6. Click on the Apply icon and then click on the Apply button. 7. After the packages have been installed you can close the Synaptic Package Manager. You should then have the icons in the Applications menu as described at the top of this section. 2. Copying Your Data from Windows You'll need to copy the Outlook PST file to your Windows machine before you perform the import. By default it's hidden pretty deeply in the Windows directory structure. Browse to the following location in Windows XP (you may have to turn on the ability to see hidden and system files first): C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. For Vista/Windows 7, browse to this location: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. 3. Importing Data into Evolution Start Evolution by selecting either Applications/Internet/Evolution Mail or Applications/Office/Evolution Mail and Calendar. Now select File/Import. The Evolution Import Assistant will appear. Click Forward. On the Importer Type screen, select import from a single file and click Forward.
Click on the filename box and select the Outlook PST file that you copied from Windows and click Forward. On the Import Location screen, only Mail is selected by default. Choose the other items you would like to import, including Address Book, Appointments (Calendar), Tasks, and Journal Entries. Leave the Destination Folder as Personal Folders. Click Forward.
After the import is completed you will be brought back to the main Evolution window. Your Outlook email will be in a folder (with subfolders) called Personal Folders. These subfolders can be dragged around to any location in your Evolution setup.
If you chose to check the boxes, your Contacts, Calendar and Tasks will be imported to their respective folders. Example screen shots follow.
G. Conclusion Conversion from Microsoft's Outlook 2007 to either Mozilla's Thunderbird or Novell's Evolution email clients is an easy process. Each of the alternative clients offer slightly different abilities so you should try both to see which you prefer. After all, they're free and open source! Comments, feedback and contributions are welcome and encouraged at articles@symmetrixtech.com. Visit us on the web at http://www.symmetrixtech.com for more information. Revision History: 2010-03-18 1.0 - Initial release