emailer-talk  

Escape from Claris Emailer

Ashley Yakeley
Mon, 18 Aug 2003 08:46:27 -0700

So having finally migrated from Emailer to Mail, I now join the Emailer list. Actually I have a history of using Apple's mail solutions, before Emailer it was Cyberdog, before Cyberdog it was PowerTalk (me and maybe ten other people in the world).

I've used Emailer for years, and I keep all my mail (except junk), because hard drive space is cheap. My Mail Database file is 789.5M, and the Index file is 110.6M. The mail is sorted into 595 folders, with 253 Mail Actions.

I've been unable to extract out the mail from Emailer's database. I tried the "Import Mailboxes..." in Mail, but it just sat spinning. I tried importing into Outlook Express, but it failed to make any progress. I tried using AppleScript, but it takes several seconds to obtain the long headers and contents of just one message. I'm guessing the size of my database is the problem. Any advice?

On the other hand, I managed to extract the folder hierarchy with AppleScript, and convert it to a directory hierarchy in ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/ that Mail could see. Also, I managed to convert the "Mail Actions" into Mail "Rules" by reverse-engineering the Emailer Mail Actions format (it has a weird chained-block structure). The conversion process was a bit messy, as Mail Rules are not as general as Emailer Actions, but I managed to get what I wanted.

Mail is generally better than Emailer IMO, and having all mail (and rules, for that matter) stored in a well-known open format is a BIG relief. On the other hand, there are a few things I miss:

* There's no "unread mail" menu like Emailer has in its toolbar.

* Rules are not quite as powerful.

* Accounts can't be given default signatures.

--
Ashley Yakeley, Seattle WA


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