OzWin Conversions

[Marilynx]

Heyla, folks....

There was some talk prior to our move here about converting years and years of OzWin messages to another mail format.

I just came across ForMorph (http://www.fkeeps.com/fmorph/fmindex.htm), which apparently handles conversions from Oz and Tapcis to a number of commonly used mail programs.

The price isn't bad. Has anyone used this program, or does anyone know anything about it?

Thanks,

-- Marilyn

[Mike]

That might be a lot faster than waiting for me to write something. :-)

[sidney]

Marilyn,

We had a somewhat older version of ForMorph in the OzWin file library on CompuServe. I haven't had reason to use it, but I didn't see any complaints. Since the download is a 30 day free trial I would say go for it.

-- sidney

[Judy G. Russell]

FYI, I just spent some time testing this with some 25Mb of old Tap6 mail messages and it appears to work just dandy. Well enough that I'm going to shell out for the program and see if I can get all my Tapcis mail messages into Eudora!

[Guerri Stevens]

What Email formats will it convert to?

[Judy G. Russell]

Eudora, dBase III and something called Generic Mail Type 1 and 2 are the choices. You'd have to ask one of the email experts like Gary what those are.

[davidh]

What Email formats will it convert to?

According to my understanding, Eudora uses MBOX format. I believe that Netscape Messenger, Mozilla Email, and Thunderbird also use MBOX format. Depending on the email program, you may have to put an MBX file extension EXPLICITLY on the mail box file.

Apparently, MBOX is not the native format for Pegasus mail, but I have "mounted" Mozilla mail files into Pegasus.

I think MBOX is a format that is used by other email programs besides the ones mentioned. For example, some of the early and current UNIX email programs.

I think it is also called Eudora format becauses of the fact that Eudora has the MBX extension explicitly appended to its mail files, unlike Mozilla/Thunderbird which have no extension, I think. I mention this because I have read a couple comments about Eudora complaining about bloat and slowness. The reason that I pay attention to this is that my Win 95 PC is so far behind the curve that it won't run apps like Thunderbird that needs Win 98. (But it does run Firefox browser with obsolete plugins e.g. Java and also Pegasus email.)

David

[davidh]

FYI, I just spent some time testing this with some 25Mb of old Tap6 mail messages and it appears to work just dandy. Well enough that I'm going to shell out for the program and see if I can get all my Tapcis mail messages into Eudora!

I think there used to be a shareware version of another program by the same author in the TAPCIS libraries or in the Classic Support libraries that was specifically adapted to Compuserve email clients and therefore somewhat lower in price than the full version of ForMorph or it's big brother ForKeeps.

David H.

[Judy G. Russell]

I think the one you're thinking of (CISCONVERT) would only convert messages from the relational databases of CS's own software to Tapcis, Eudora, etc.

[davidh]

I think the one you're thinking of (CISCONVERT) would only convert messages from the relational databases of CS's own software to Tapcis, Eudora, etc.

I think you may be right.

BTW, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to post a zipped copy of the last library catalog from TAPCIS forum somewhere around here. In case somebody wanted to browse it. And is it a plain text file that could easily be read without the TAPCIS software? I don't have any need for it myself at the moment. Just curiious.

David H.

[Judy G. Russell]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to post a zipped copy of the last library catalog from TAPCIS forum somewhere around here. In case somebody wanted to browse it. And is it a plain text file that could easily be read without the TAPCIS software?
Yes to the latter; I'm not sure to the former. Fact is, most of what existed in the old forum is either personal stuff (photos and the like) that should be available from the uploader or dated.

[Lindsey]

BTW, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to post a zipped copy of the last library catalog from TAPCIS forum somewhere around here.
I have a TAPCIS.CAT file of the public libraries that I made just before the forum closed; I could easily zip it up and upload it here. And yes, the .CAT files are plain text--you don't need TAPCIS to be able to read them.

--Lindsey

[davidh]

I have a TAPCIS.CAT file of the public libraries that I made just before the forum closed; I could easily zip it up and upload it here. And yes, the .CAT files are plain text--you don't need TAPCIS to be able to read them.

--Lindsey

I don't need it. Just was curious.

BTW, is there a place here that would be more appropriate for posting files, assuming anyone wanted too?

[Lindsey]

There's no section specifically set aside for files, if that's what you're asking.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

BTW, is there a place here that would be more appropriate for posting files, assuming anyone wanted too?
MORE appropriate? No -- since this place works the way most web boards do, with files attached to a message, the most appropriate place is attached to a message related to the subject of the file!

[Guerri Stevens]

I don't see anything with an MBX file extension (I'm using Thunderbird).

[Judy G. Russell]

It's the other way around -- Eudora files have the MBX extension; Thunderbird (and Netscape and Mozilla) don't use extensions for the mail files themselves but only for the index files.

[Marilynx]

That might be a lot faster than waiting for me to write something. :-)

Mike,

:) Yes, it would be. Save you a lot of hassle, too, is someone's already done the deed!

[Marilynx]

We had a somewhat older version of ForMorph in the OzWin file library on CompuServe. I haven't had reason to use it, but I didn't see any complaints. Since the download is a 30 day free trial I would say go for it.

Sidney,

Sounds good to me,yes. Oz question: ISTR that there's a way you can identify which Oz folder is what in an index... one of the ini files, maybe? I have a couple hundred Oz folders, and it would be handy to identify which is what from within Windows Explorer without having to open them.

My major reason for converting certain Oz files to Eudora is simply that Eudora has a search function which finds specific messages easier than Oz did, and I'm referencing a lot of these in current emails.

But one thing NO program I've tried has is Oz's boiler plates, or the paste quote function. I miss that terribly, along with Oz's opening my reply window under the message I'm answering, and letting me scroll back and forth.

[Marilynx]

FYI, I just spent some time testing this with some 25Mb of old Tap6 mail messages and it appears to work just dandy. Well enough that I'm going to shell out for the program and see if I can get all my Tapcis mail messages into Eudora!

Judy,

Hey, that's really great news! I've got somewhere around 200 MB of Ozwin mail that I'd like to get shifted over and sorted. <finger crossed that that much mail won't cause Eudora to burp>

[Dan in Saint Louis]

<finger crossed that that much mail won't cause Eudora to burp>
The "conventional wisdom" on the Eudora-Win email list is that it would be risky. The suggestion you would get there would be to break it up into smaller mailboxes.

They used to say to try to keep the Inbox below 1 MB or 100 messages, but it appears recently that 10 times that can be handled.

Only the main system mailboxes (In, Out, Trash, etc) are loaded into RAM when Eudora opens, so it does not matter how many additional boxes you create. Could even be a "2004" folder, with "JanMar", "AprJun", "JulSep" and "OctDec" boxes inside if that helps!

[Judy G. Russell]

The only hitch at the moment is that I haven't received the key to unlock the program yet. From the dates on pages in the website it appears the author is still around, but...?

[Mike]

<finger crossed that that much mail won't cause Eudora to burp>
Just do it in small chunks.

[sidney]

identify which Oz folder is what in an index... one of the ini files, maybe?

The answer to that is on my laptop which is here with a dead battery waiting for me to get back home where I forgot the AC adapter when I left this morning. I'll post an answer when I can track that down.

-- sidney

[Judy G. Russell]

Hey Sidney -- if you want to shoot me an OzWin message file to run through ForMorph now that I have the registered version, I can test it and return the files.

[billh]

Hi Marilyn,

The file mapping file names to useful names is OZWIN2.INI. Look in the section, [MailFolders]. The format is obvious.

Bill H

[billh]

BTW, you can change the filenames to readable names (I still keep the FLD extension) and then edit the INI file to reflect the better name. I do that for the dozen files I regularly search.

Bill