Move My Email Blog – Information and Updates

The process to move email from account to account may seem simple and easy to do but unfortunately it isn’t.  This is because there is no universal standard for email messages and contacts.

Universal Standard

A universal standard for email messages and contacts would be nice because it would make the export feature of your email client compatible with the import feature on all of the other email clients.  Thunderbird would be able to move to Entourage, Mac Mail could be moved to Outlook.  This would make the task to move email and contacts simpler and easier.  So why didn’t someone make up a standard?

The Problem

Well, ‘universal standards’ have come out but no one follows them.  Email clients are created by companies that want a profit.  If all email clients were compatible with a universal standard, then you could move your accounts between clients easily and find the BEST email client for yourself.  This does not benefit the company that spent umpteen billion dollars developing an email client that everyone moves away from.  Email clients need you to stick with them.  The best method to do this is to make ‘proprietary’ formats so that it is not simple for you to transfer your account.  Here’s the technical details:

Technical Details of the Problem

Email messages are stored in several different formats by different email clients.  Outlook and Outlook for Mac stores email messages within a PST or OLM file.  Mac Mail, Windows Live mail and Thunderbird use the MBX format.  There are a number of other formats out there, as well.  These formats are not compatible with each other.  Some email clients attempt to provide the ability to import other email types but usually they aren’t too dependable.

Email clients typically export Contacts as a .VCF or .CSV file.  Luckily, most email clients can import either format – now why don’t they do the same for email??

Solution

All email clients should adopt a Universal Standard for emails and contacts.  This would provide a simple method to move email and contacts between programs.   If all clients use the same email standard then we can move on from compatibility issues to email client features.  We could start improving email clients and make them the amazing tools they are destined to be.

Microsoft has discontinued the Entourage email client with the release of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.  The new Office package includes a new offering – Outlook for Mac.

Is transferring to this new email client the best option for Mac users? What other options are there?

Mac users have three options for installed email clients (we aren’t going to count the online email clients – Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) – Outlook for Mac, Mac Mail and Thunderbird for Mac.

Mac Mail

A simple email client that is included with each Mac operating system (similar to old school Outlook Express and Live Mail).  It has all of the basic email features.  It does not have Signatures or Predefined Replies.  It does access contacts from the Mac Address Book and is a relatively good program.  If you don’t have a high requirement for email and you don’t like online email clients – we recommend this program.

Thunderbird for Mac

Mozilla is constantly updating this open source project.  It has all of the basic features and most of the advanced features of Outlook for Mac.  It is very simple and easy to use and the Mozilla Support forums are known for being VERY helpful.  We recommend this tool if you need something in the mid-range and you do not want to use Outlook for Mac.

Outlook for Mac

Microsoft has done an excellent job of including ALL of the functionality from Windows Outlook 2010 into this version.  It is a step above Entourage and is a very hefty program.  If you need something serious for work emails, we recommend this tool.

Have we missed a tool?  If so, please let us know!

From initial reviews and testing of the Dev-release of Windows 8.  It looks like there will be no email client included with Microsoft’s latest operating system.  This means Windows 8 users will need to download the Windows Live Mail Essentials Pack which is the free desktop client and is likely to remain the free client.

Users that need an email client with more functionality will likely need to purchase Outlook or Thunderbird.  We will post any further updates as the release of Windows 8 comes closer.

Here are 4 Email Tips that will make your life easier using Outlook 2010.

1. Signatures

Outlook 2010 allows you to display a variety of different signatures in your email.  These signatures can have pictures, logos, contact information, links and quotes.  Go to Office -> Options -> “Signatures”

You can add any HTML document as a signature with an assortment of graphics

If you need to send the same response as a reply over and over again then we recommend Quick Parts in Outlook 2010.  QuickParts allows you to save parts of your email and then insert these chunks into future emails.   Highlight the text in your email to save, go to Insert tab -> Text section -> Quick Parts -> at the bottom it will say “Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery”.  Click on this and save the text.  These quickparts can make your replies much quicker.

Outlook 2010 allows you to create multiple folders in your account.  To do this, right click the mainfolder (or any other folder) and select “New Folder…”.  This will create a sub-folder under that folder.  You can create as many sub-folders as you prefer to keep track of all of your emails.

Outlook 2010 now has a Backup add-in that allows you to keep a backup of your emails.  To do this, configure Outlook to allow the Personal Folders Backup add-in to run automatically on exit. For more information on how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: “2030523 - How to enable Personal Folders Backup add-in to work with Outlook 2010″.  This step only needs to be performed one time.

Once you have done that then, Start Outlook -> click the Add-ins tab -> Click the Backup button -> Click Options and select the .pst files that you want to back up.  All of your email data will now be backed up to another PST file.

For individuals or businesses  selecting the appropriate email client is not an easy choice.  We’ve decided to make it easier for you by providing 10 ways to select the best email client for you.  Not all e-mail clients are created equal and this list hopes to make it clearer for you:

1.  Choose your operating system:

Not all email clients are available on every operating systems.  (For this editorial we will only focus on Mac and PC’s.)  The following are your choices:

PC

• Windows Live Mail
• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail
• Outlook
• Thunderbird
• Lotus Notes
• Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc

MAC

• Mail
• Entourage
• Outlook for Mac
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc

2.  Cost:

There are free and paid email clients.  How much are you willing to spend?

Free

• Windows Live Mail
• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail
• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Most web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc

Paid

• Entourage
• Outlook
• Outlook for Mac
• Lotus Notes

3.  Business or Personal:

What is the primary use of your email account going to be?

Personal

• Windows Live Mail
• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail
• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc

Business

• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Entourage
• Outlook
• Outlook for Mac
• Lotus Notes

4.  One Computer or Any Computer:

Will you need easy access to the email account from any computer in the world or just from work/home computer?

Anywhere

• Most web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc

One Location (Please note: These email clients allow access to an account from more than one computer but it will take considerable setup time)

• Windows Live Mail
• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail
• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Entourage
• Outlook
• Outlook for Mac
• Lotus Notes

5.  Features / Featureless:

Will you require additional features (i.e. signatures, mtg requests, quick parts)?

Featureless

• Most web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc
• Windows Live Mail
• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail

Features

• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Entourage
• Outlook
• Outlook for Mac
• Lotus Notes

6.  Spam

We have ranked the email clients according to their ability to properly filter junk email and ‘spam’:

Rankings

1. Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc
2. Windows Live Mail
3. Vista Mail
4. Thunderbird
5. Thunderbird for Mac
6. Entourage
7. Outlook
8. Outlook for Mac
9. Outlook Express
10. Lotus Notes

7.  Address Book

Will you need a functional Address Book that can store elaborate contact details?

Featureless

• Most web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc
• Lotus Notes
• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail

Features

• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Entourage
• Outlook
• Outlook for Mac
• Windows Live Mail

8.  BackupsWill you need a client that provides a backup of all of your email accounts?

Limited/Complicated Backups

• Outlook Express
• Vista Mail
• Lotus Notes
• Windows Live Mail

Full, Easy to Use Backups

• Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc
• Thunderbird
• Thunderbird for Mac
• Entourage
• Outlook
• Outlook for Mac

9.  SecurityWe have ranked email clients on their ability to securely protect your email account contents:

         Rankings

1. Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc
2. Outlook
3. Outlook for Mac
4. Windows Live Mail
5. Thunderbird
6. Thunderbird for Mac
7. Entourage
8. Vista Mail
9. Lotus Notes
10. Outlook Express

10.  StorageWe have ranked email clients on the size of their maximum storage capability:

         Rankings

1. Outlook
2. Outlook for Mac
3. Thunderbird
4. Thunderbird for Mac
5. Lotus Notes
6. Entourage
7. Windows Live Mail
8. Web-based Email Clients = Gmail/Yahoo/AOL/etc
9. Vista Mail
10. Outlook Express

By making sure you have selected the appropriate email client today will make your life considerably easier tomorrow.  If you have any questions, please send us an email.

MoveMyEmail.com is happy to announce the addition of 8 new Video Tutorials for transferring and moving accounts.

These tutorials are available in the Support Section of MoveMyEmail.com.

Please notify us if there are any issues with the videos or the Support section.

We are excited to announce the release of Outlook to Outlook for Mac.  This new migration tool is compatible with the Office for Mac 2011 software package.

This software tools allows all Outlook accounts to be exported and imported into the new Outlook for Mac program.  Outlook to Outlook for Mac is simple and easy to use.

For more information, please visit the following link:

 http://www.movemyemail.com/outlook-to-outlook-for-mac.php

We are always here to help and we want to make sure that all of your email account information is transferred, no matter what.  For any assistance at all, please submit a Support Ticket:

http://support.movemyemail.com/index.php?_m=tickets&_a=submit

Outlook to Entourage – Mac Edition is now available.  This new migration tool has been repeatedly requested by Users that have already sold their PC system and only have their archived PST files.

Outlook to Entourage – Mac Edition installs on the Mac operating system and converts the PST format into the Entourage format.  This allows users to transfer their emails directly into the Entourage program.  The new release will no longer incorporate the Outlook program.

Outlook to Entourage – Mac Edition does this conversion and is simple and easy to use.  For more information, please visit the following link:

 http://www.movemyemail.com/outlook_to_entourage_mac_edition.php

We are always here to help and we want to make sure that all of your email account information is transferred, no matter what.  For any assistance at all, please submit a Support Ticket:

http://support.movemyemail.com/index.php?_m=tickets&_a=submit

Thunderbird to Entourage has been officially released.  This new migration tool will allow for the export of email and contacts from Thunderbird into the Microsoft Entourage program.We know that this little program is endangered because of the release of Office for Mac 2011.  The new release will no longer incorporate the Entourage program.  Most people are very, very happy for this change.

Regardless of the expiration date we have gone forward with the release of this software because it can help a large majority of Thunderbird users transfer to their new Mac and it is part of our commitment to provide all necessary Email Migration Tools.

Thunderbird to Entourage does this conversion and is simple and easy to use.  For more information, please visit the following link:

http://www.movemyemail.com/thunderbird-to-entourage.php

We are always here to help and we want to make sure that all of your email account information is transferred, no matter what.  For any assistance at all, please submit a Support Ticket:http://www.movemyemail.com/support-ticket-submit.php