On or near 10/2/03 9:32 PM, Bruce Klutchko at [EMAIL PROTECTED] observed: > On 10/2/03 2:21 PM, "Jim Warthman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> I'd like to start archiving my messages. I've read a bit about eMA, which >> sounds pretty good, and I'm curious what folks here think about this >> program. Does the archive retain all the same information that Entourage has >> for all my messages? How are HTML messages handled? >> >> Also, what other archive solutions would you recommend instead of eMA? I'd >> prefer more features over fewer features, and I'm especially interested in >> being able to construct complex queries that will run reasonably fast. >> >> > I just started using iData Pro. It will import both MBOX files and the > exported contacts files. Searching using Boolean searches is instantaneous > across 2000 messages or 1600 contacts. Importing the files is UNDER 1 sec. > If you choose to import into a field-based database, all of the appropriate > fields are automatically created for you. > > I've also tried Hog Bay and DEVONthink, but both are very slow in > comparison. HTML messages archived in iData do NOT contain the HTML, but > only the text. Instead there is an indication that this was an HTML mail. > About EMA: I think it is the best of the email-specific apps out there. Its archiving is quite automatic, very flexible, and preserves more information than any other archive app I know of, including categories, accounts, Entourage folders, attachment info (but not the actual attachments), status and flags, and so on. It does not retain HTML because there is no way to do so within FileMaker Pro. I used it for years and still have a number of FMP-based archive files I use in EMA format. In FMP 6, the current version, searching is blazingly fast IF you choose to index the text fields such as message body. (The database is significantly larger if you do so, so having the ability to not index if you don't do much searching is good.) You can do very complex searches with FileMaker. EMA also has the ability to select a message in the archive and to transfer it back to Entourage, or to reply to or forward it.
The only way I know to retain all the HTML info is to archive to separate Entourage identities, as several people have suggested. Bear in mind that it is at least possible that this ability will be developed by Microsoft for the purpose of archiving. Right now, to me, its drawback is that you have to manually select the messages to archive and move them into special folders--or else import duplicates and then delete them. Idata Pro's ability to import mbx files created by dragging Entourage folders to the desktop is great! And it is fast. But you still have the problem of having to manually select the messages to move, and if you have scores of folders, this can get tedious. I like EMA because its AppleScripts do the selection for you by date, priority, and flag status, moving the archived files into Deleted Items (or elsewhere if you want). It takes a second or two per message, which seems slow compared to iData's import speed, but when you take into account all the selecting and dragging for iData (or for the separate Entourage identity), EMA wins hands down. I am currently using my own version of a FileMaker archive that selects like EMA does. My archive has nearly 30,000 messages in it. A search within the message body for the words "Microsoft Entourage" took 4 seconds to produce a list of 6406 messages containing those words. FMP 6 has the feature to search within text fields, so it is easy then to use find/replace to locate the text within each message body (or to search any other field). In my experimentation with Hog Bay Notebook (for archiving text clippings, rather than e-mail), I found its search to be _amazingly_ fast. I don't know why Bruce thinks it is slow. But, it is not set up to split data into fields the way FileMaker and iData can do. It might be interesting (if I had time, which I do not) to use AppleScript to interface with iData Pro, since the latter seems to have a rich AppleScript dictionary. If one could use a script to select the material to be archived, write out a mbx file, delete it from Entourage, and then import the mbx into iData, the whole operation would be much less onerous. The automation of that selection and deletion process is what currently makes archiving to FileMaker so attractive to me. The slow part of that process is, quite frankly, adding the records to the FMP database one at a time. Combining the scripted message selection with Idata's speedy import might make the whole thing go a lot faster. -- Microsoft MVP for Entourage/OE/Word (MVPs are volunteers) Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Entourage FAQ site: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> AppleScripts for Outlook Express and Entourage: <http://members.thinkaccess.net/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/Scripts/> Entourage Help Pages: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
