My OperaOpera Mail almost there...
Saturday, April 29, 2006 5:25:08 AM
I have spent most of the day learning about the new Opera 9 beta, features, and the related Opera website community content. I really like the browser, it seems to be solid, standards compliant, and fast. I have started using it as my primary browser, and then we will see if it becomes a permanent switch. I have started using it as my primary browser, and then we will see if it becomes a permanent switch.
If you read my post about BlinkList, you'll see that I'm looking for new software based on the tagging (categorization) pattern. I was therefore very excited when I saw that Opera Mail supports this concept.
Unfortunately, I don't dear to migrate my thousands of e-mail messages from Outlook to Opera yet. The reason is the lack of import and export capabilities in Opera.
In order to import from Outlook 2003, I must first import my messages into Outlook Express. Then, import from Outlook Express to Opera. I tested the procedure with a small subset of my Outlook folders. Everything imported okay, except that my folder hierarchy was flattened to only 1 level deep in Opera's Filter "view". On top of that, there's no feature in Opera to move a filter to become a sub-filter of another filter. The only work around was to create new sub-filters and move the contents of the imported filters across to the new destination.
Maybe there's no need for me to mirror the original folder structure in Opera. After all, the filter (tagging) concept is very different from the hierarchical folder view in Outlook. Nevertheless, I'm not yet confident enough in Opera Mail to think that I'll never again need to migrate my e-mail database to another application. That's a pretty good reason for maintaining a fixed hierarchy of messages.
Maybe the optimal solution is to use a standard hierarchical folder system as the permanent store for the e-mail messages, and then add the filtering/tagging/categorization system on top. That should give me the best of both worlds.
Oh, I almost forgot, I was unable to find a way to export e-mail messages from Opera Mail without loosing all the filtering information. The only solution I found, was to export one filter at a time into a .mbs file, but no information about filter (folder) names or rules would be included.
There's of course no import of .mbs files in Outlook or Outlook Express either, so I would have to find some third party software to get it all back if, for example, I should want/need to start using Outlook 2007 when it's out.
I will keep an eye on Opera Mail, and hope that a future version will add some of the features I'm looking for.
Disclaimer: it's absolutely possible that I'm incorrect or inaccurate in some of my observations. I appreciate any feedback on the matter!
If you read my post about BlinkList, you'll see that I'm looking for new software based on the tagging (categorization) pattern. I was therefore very excited when I saw that Opera Mail supports this concept.
Unfortunately, I don't dear to migrate my thousands of e-mail messages from Outlook to Opera yet. The reason is the lack of import and export capabilities in Opera.
In order to import from Outlook 2003, I must first import my messages into Outlook Express. Then, import from Outlook Express to Opera. I tested the procedure with a small subset of my Outlook folders. Everything imported okay, except that my folder hierarchy was flattened to only 1 level deep in Opera's Filter "view". On top of that, there's no feature in Opera to move a filter to become a sub-filter of another filter. The only work around was to create new sub-filters and move the contents of the imported filters across to the new destination.
Maybe there's no need for me to mirror the original folder structure in Opera. After all, the filter (tagging) concept is very different from the hierarchical folder view in Outlook. Nevertheless, I'm not yet confident enough in Opera Mail to think that I'll never again need to migrate my e-mail database to another application. That's a pretty good reason for maintaining a fixed hierarchy of messages.
Maybe the optimal solution is to use a standard hierarchical folder system as the permanent store for the e-mail messages, and then add the filtering/tagging/categorization system on top. That should give me the best of both worlds.
Oh, I almost forgot, I was unable to find a way to export e-mail messages from Opera Mail without loosing all the filtering information. The only solution I found, was to export one filter at a time into a .mbs file, but no information about filter (folder) names or rules would be included.
There's of course no import of .mbs files in Outlook or Outlook Express either, so I would have to find some third party software to get it all back if, for example, I should want/need to start using Outlook 2007 when it's out.
I will keep an eye on Opera Mail, and hope that a future version will add some of the features I'm looking for.
Disclaimer: it's absolutely possible that I'm incorrect or inaccurate in some of my observations. I appreciate any feedback on the matter!
