Import Apple Mail Address Book to Outlook Express

Ok, folks, hear me out. I'm taking a trip around the world with a friend; we're going to some rather poor countries and I'm not taking my $1,000 Macbook Pro there.
I am int he process of ordering a Dell D420 or D430 off eBay. My intent is to use either Windows or Linux (leaning towards teh Doze) so if the machine gets stolen I really won't care. I'll have Full hard drive encryption enabled.
So, I'll be using Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird.

How can I convert my Apple Mail Address book to these various formats?

You should be able to export and import vcard between anything you use. I highly recommend going with outlook or thunderbird - skip outlook express.

If the vcard import/export doesn't work then you can try installing the latest Thunderbird version 3.0.4. The Mac version automatically imports and reads Apple's Address Book so all you have to do is export it in Thunderbird and then import it in Thunderbird under your Windows machine.

Since you will be using Thunderbird for both it should be compatible going back and forth between Mac and Windows. I haven't tried it myself but I believe it should work because they use the same file formats for the address book. It's one of the benefits of using cross platform software.

I agree. Thunderbird is the way to go. And besides using it for email it's also an excellent new reader for those sites that use NNTP.

Regards.

EndlessMac said:

If the vcard import/export doesn't work then you can try installing the latest Thunderbird version 3.0.4. The Mac version automatically imports and reads Apple's Address Book so all you have to do is export it in Thunderbird and then import it in Thunderbird under your Windows machine.

Since you will be using Thunderbird for both it should be compatible going back and forth between Mac and Windows. I haven't tried it myself but I believe it should work because they use the same file formats for the address book. It's one of the benefits of using cross platform software.

Click to expand...

Actually, I use Apple Mail on the Mac.

TechieJustin said:

Actually, I use Apple Mail on the Mac.

Click to expand...

I think you are misunderstanding me. You don't need to switch over to using Thunderbird on your Mac. All you have to do is install Thunderbird and it will automatically import your Mac Address Book into Thunderbird. You don't even have to setup your email or anything. Just install Thunderbird and then use its export address book feature and then import that file in Thunderbird on your Windows computer. You only need to do this if Outlook can't use Mail's vcard file format.

In other words Thunderbird will convert Apple's Address Book into a file format that can be used on both Mac and Windows version of Thunderbird.