Chapter 6. Transferring Email and Contacts

If you use your PC for email, good news: Switching to a Mac doesn't mean you have to reconfigure your email accounts from scratch or manually retype the hundreds of names and addresses tucked away in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or another email program. This chapter covers the secrets of moving your entire email life over to the Macmessages, addresses, settings, everythingwith as little hassle as possible.

As you read this chapter, it's important to keep straight the two leading Windows email programs, which many people don't realize are actually two entirely different beasts:

• Microsoft Outlook . This program is part of Microsoft Office for Windows. It's a sprawling, network-based email, contact, and calendar program that's ubiquitous in corporate offices and many schools . You, or somebody who employs you, paid good money for this software.

• Outlook Express . This Windows program is a free, scaled-down version of Outlook. It comes with Microsoft Windows, and is therefore sitting on practically every PC sold. It doesn't have a calendar, a To Do list, or other bells and whistles of Outlookbut it's free.

(From a security standpoint, both of these programs are at the botto of the list.)

Unfortunately, each Windows email program requires a different method of exporting its email and addresses. Each Macintosh email program requires a different piece of go-between Windows software to ease the transition, too.

There are so many permutations of the "to/from" issue, in fact, that you'd practically need a table or two to keep them straight. They might look something like this:

Table 6-1. Ways to Move Your Email

	From Outlook	From Outlook Express	From Eudora
To Apple Mail	Outlook2Mac or Netscape 7	Netscape 7	Netscape 7
To Entourage	Outlook2Mac or Netscape 7	Netscape 7	Netscape 7
To Eudora for Mac	Outlook2Mac or Eudora for Windows	Netscape 7 or Eudora for Windows	Copy files

Table 6-2. Ways to Move Your Address Book

	From Outlook	From Outlook Express	From Eudora
To Mac OS X Address book	Outlook2Mac or Netscape 7	Move2Mac or Netscape 7	Netscape 7
To Entourage	Outlook2Mac or CSV method or	CSV Method	CSV Method
To Eudora for Mac	Outlook2Mac or Eudora for Windows	Eudora for Windows	Copy files

It's a complex matrix. But if you know what program you've been using on the PC, and which one you want to use on the Mac, you'll find the steps you need later in this chapter.