Outlook to Thunderbird

Hi. I just got my first Mac, it's a really nice bit of kit. I downloaded Thunderbird but I can't figure out how to import my old Outlook 2003 emails to Thunderbird. When I go into import I don't get a option to import from Outlook.

Has anyone done this before and does anyone have any ideas?

Not sure on the most direct route - but there are a couple of long'ish ways about this.

1st is to use Outlook Express (included with most versions of Windows) to import the mail from Outlook 2003 then you can export the mail from outlook express to a file type that Thunderbird can use.

2nd and prob the better method is to install Thunderbird to the PC - I'm pretty sure Thunderbird can import mail straight from Outlook 2003 directly when on the same machine - makes some kind of a link with Outlook and pulls each mail over to Thunderbird. Once the mail is in Thunderbird browse to cDocuments and Settings\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles and copy the profile file/directory - will be named something like xxxxx.default. now go to your mac browse to the profile location for Thunderbird on a Mac and past the profile you just copied from Windows.

Ok a little bit of looking about and I found this; http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_.pst_files kind of says what I just said but in a more readable way.

The O2M program (Outlook2Mac) does just this, so I have read. See:

http://www.littlemachines.com/

This is $10.00 shareware but I have read good reports of it. You run it on your PC, and it converts your PST files to industry standard MBX files. From there on, almost any email client can import the folders and messages.

Thanks for your help guys. I installed Thunderbird on my old PC and backed everything up and then copied it over to my new MacBook.

I now have all my emails back!

RNDDave, EXCELLENT tip. I did not know that SimpleMAPI even existed, much less that I could use it to do PST to MBX exporting! Thanks!

I've transferred my mail to Thunderbird and I'm now trying to find the correct files to rename to .mbox and I can't find them. There are so many files I just don't know which. Please help!!!

I found this http://forums.macnn.com/82/applications/316667/thunderbird-to-entourage-migration/
and your question about which is best you might find answered in these forums as it has been asked before...

oh and be sure to click on the faq link as that also answers your question and you might need this fix, also this page you might need... http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060528130736421