7/08/03 Doug Hinschberger : >IF I should have to convert some of my CE users to another email >software, I'm considering Outlook Express (free) because it is reasonably >similar in operation to CE (from my limited experience) and will involve >the least training.
I wouldn't choose OE: - it's far from resembling Emailer (try PowerMail or GyazMail) - it's much more similar to my idea of medieval torture chambers - it's far from involving the least training. Like many members of the list, I tried all the mailers I could find and OE is the ONLY one that took me 5 minutes to send myself something, considering the program was already installed on a friend's PC and my address was in his addressbook, not to mention that it took me 3 or 4 tries to add an attachment (felt stupid, and I hate when a program makes me feel stupid). Oh, and I ended up typing my address. Maybe it got better since and maybe the mac version is easier, or maybe I was drunk that day, but the point is I wasn't a novice user and 5 minutes is usually enough for me to test other mac mailers (which includes installation and a quick evaluation of the interface, available functions, and docs). - OE mac is the only mailer that quits when you ask it to check mail (OK, it probably doesn't do that all the time to everybody, yet it did on the default installation of the lab's G4s under OS X -- straight to the trashcan) - it's incredibly annoying, like most M$ products (example : it will initiate a connection every time a user clicks on an account box to see existing messages, until instructed not to do so, which will drive any unsavvy laptop user mad) - OE is the program that made email dangerous (ALL mail virus target OE or OE+Windows), and it's far from free when you factor in the time wasted and the cost of anti-virus programs - even the PC version is(was) bad, but its users don't seem to notice: my brother (who studies computing) actually told me he was very happy with OE because he typed his messages in Word and pasted them in OE so he had no more stability problem with OE! At some point OE (4.5?) was the best at importing Emailer databases, but it's not the only one. I'm almost certain Powermail claims to import Emailer, like Apple Mail and a few others. They may be slow or bad at it, but could succeed with a bit of help from you (first rebuild the DB in Emailer, give it a lot of memory, deactivate schedules in both programs, process batches of folders instead of the whole DB if you can, and do that under OS X which has a much stronger and faster AppleScript). Another option is to just keep old email in Emailer: it can stay there and remain available forever, no matter what program you choose for everyday use (in most cases there's no point in archiving in Filemaker Pro for example instead of keeping an old Emailer database). This will even be better for some users who could loose track of their old stuff in a new environment and may prefer to keep old things unchanged (specially if they rely on Emailer's 20 labels that may not survive the import process). ---- VRic ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
