Outlook to HTML

[Gaz]

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a utility that will convert Outlook PST & Outlook
Express DBX files into HTML and generate an index that organises these
files into groups (i.e. an index file consisting of links listed by
date or subject heading) . I've seen various utilities (such as Mail
Navigator) that will divide each message into a separate file and
output them into a directory, however no one seems to have considered
how to organise this information.I've created a small script that goes
through a directory and generates a HTML index file based upon the
filename, but it is far from ideal. Can anyone recommend some software
or a script that I could use to organise messages in a manner that
retains the original structure in a platform-independent manner?

Gareth

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'm looking for a utility that will convert Outlook PST & Outlook
Express DBX files into HTML and generate an index that organises these
files into groups (i.e. an index file consisting of links listed by
date or subject heading) .

I've always found that Outlook, for one, does very well at organizing mail.
It's limited more by your imagination that program abilities. Outlook
Express isn't quite as good, in my opinion, but still not all that bad.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Can anyone recommend some software
or a script that I could use to organise messages in a manner that
retains the original structure in a platform-independent manner?

I have a little problem with this statement. In general, this is
impossible, unless you keep all your mail in text files. All other format
(and even text, in many cases) are rarely platform-independent. Can you
take any file at all and, say, transfer it to a Mac with the expectation is
will look exactly as it did on a PC? Not without software to do the
translation. Likewise, try copying any file, including HTML from a Windows
PC to, say, a Linux machine (no translation software allowed) and see what
you get. Junk, as far as the Linux machine is concerned. Without some kind
of glue to mediate this transfer, there is no such tings as "platform
independent."

 

[Gaz]

I have a little problem with this statement. In general, this is
impossible, unless you keep all your mail in text files. All other format
(and even text, in many cases) are rarely platform-independent. Can you
take any file at all and, say, transfer it to a Mac with the expectation is
will look exactly as it did on a PC? Not without software to do the
translation. Likewise, try copying any file, including HTML from a Windows
PC to, say, a Linux machine (no translation software allowed) and see what
you get. Junk, as far as the Linux machine is concerned. Without some kind
of glue to mediate this transfer, there is no such tings as "platform
independent."

I don't understand the point you are trying to make. Why would a HTML
file appear as "junk" on a Linux machine? As long as you avoid mixing
character encodings, using bad HTML or introduce other non-standard
(*cough* Microsoft *cough*) incompatibilities there shouldn't be a
problem. There may be differences in the layout between different
engines, but it will hardly be unintelligible. A table will be a
table, underlined text will be underlined. Thousands of extremely
intelligent people have developed or are working on formats and
standards that allow data to be interpreted in a consistent manner
across platforms. For everything else, emulation of the platform is a
possibility.

However, this is going off-topic. As I mentioned in my original
e-mail. I wish to archive emails from various mailing lists going back
several years. I'm looking for something that will take an Outlook
(.pst) or Outlook Express (.dbx) mail "folder", convert each message
to HTML and create an index.html file that lists these messages by
their subject heading or date.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I don't understand the point you are trying to make. Why would a HTML
file appear as "junk" on a Linux machine? As long as you avoid mixing
character encodings, using bad HTML or introduce other non-standard
(*cough* Microsoft *cough*) incompatibilities there shouldn't be a
problem.

One reason is that PCs and Unix systems have different end-of-line
expectations. That has to be taken into consideration by the method you use
to transfer the data. If you don't get it right, it makes a big difference.
Typically, it's handled by the "glue" I mentioned: an FTP program, an NFS
client/server, or some tool on the PC or Unix machine that can, for example,
read diskettes formatted by the source system.

There may be differences in the layout between different
engines, but it will hardly be unintelligible. A table will be a
table, underlined text will be underlined.

You're thinking at too high a level.

Thousands of extremely
intelligent people have developed or are working on formats and
standards that allow data to be interpreted in a consistent manner
across platforms.

You're ignoring what you originally stated: "the structure in a
platform-independent manner." This involves much more that the contents of
any file (which you seem to be concentrating on in the above remarks). It
involves just how the data is stored. PCs, for example, just can't read a
disk formatted as a Unix file system. In general, Unix systems can't read
FAT32 or NTFS file systems. Unless you take the underlying structure into
account and have programs that can interpret that structure on multiple
platforms, there can be no "platform-independent manner."