Coupla Mail.app questions

M

mweier

Pixel Farmer
I just got my new dual G5 & am totally psyched to use it & leave the dregs of Microsoft behind me whenever possible. Thus I am leaving Outlook 2000 for Windows in favor of Mail.App for OSX 10.3

however, got some general questions about using it that don't seem readily clear:

1.) How do I add a new person to my addressbook? I figured out how to add a sender to the address book if they've emailed me, but how can I make one from scratch? If the only way is to double click the Addressbook from my apps folder (or dock), can anyone give me guidance on how to add an applescript to my Mail scripts which simply opens that app? I don't want to have an addressbook icon on my dock if I can help it.

2.) Since all my old contacts & emails are trapped in an Outlook PST file, is there anyway to import any of that into Mail.app? Is there a way to export it to a format that Mail.app can import?

thanks!
 
Launch Address Book and in the file menu should be import. Then point it to the Outlook file. Mail uses Address Book for emails.

As for an applescript.... some one here might have the answer.
 
If you wish to add a sender to your Address Book, simply click on the sender's address in the message close to the right side of the sender's name (where the little triangle is) and select "Add to Address Book." This will add the sender to the Address Book without having to actually launch Address Book.

To add a new person to the Address Book from scratch, I believe you'd have to actually open the Address Book application, although you can do a search on http://www.versiontracker.com for applications that may do what you like. Here's one that has a lot of scripts for both Mail and Address Book:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16217
 
thanks for the tips. I already knew how to add senders to address books, was trying to add a new person from scratch without having to have the Address book app on my dock. I understand that I will likely still have to use Address book but want to figure out an AppleScript that will launch Address Book from within the Mail.app (why is this not a default feature!?). Maybe I'll find the script code required to simply launch an app. I can't imagine it's very complicated (pro'lly only one line but I don't know AppleScript at all at present...)

As for importing a PST file, It will not let me... File>Import in AddressBook allows me to import either Vcards or LDIF, not the outlook native PST format (which houses all the email, contacts, calendar, etc. at present). I'll have to check some time whether Outlook can export to either of those formats (my pc is not on network and is currently not hooked up... eventually it will be a VNC-only box)

Thanks!

any other tips?
 
As for the PST problem, no, Address Book won't let you import those. A PST file is kind of proprietary to Microsoft Outlook/Express. Re-import that PST file into Outlook, then you'll have to do a two-step:

1. Export the addresses from Outlook as Vcards, then import into Address Book.
2. Export the mail. You may be able to just import the mail into Apple's Mail by using the "Import" feature under the "File" menu. If that doesn't work, try to export the mail from Outlook in "mbox" format, which Mail can import.

I hope that helps!
 
here's the simple way to make an applescript that will launch the Address book. just make a new apple script with this in it:

tell application "Finder"
open "Macintosh HD:Applications:Address Book.app"
end tell

And then put that applescript in your Macintosh HD:Library:Scripts:Mail Scripts folder. This will add it to the script menu in Mail.app. Thus you can just pick it from that list & no longer have to keep a way to launch Address Book.app kicking around on your desktop or Dock.
 
Wow, thanX Matt, I've been wondering how to do that for the longest time, works great.

P.S. Cool web site!
 
The address book in the mail menu only gives you addresses which include email addresses (in v1.3.3). Cute but I would rather get the real thing. In the earlier versions you got the real address book not a chopped down version. I think Apple should change it back.
 
Yep. And not only does it only show peopel who have email addresses, but it does'nt have the + button to add a new address from scratch. thoroughly bizarre & annoying. If I want to send an address to people, I generally just type in the To: field and let it complete for me. The "feature" they've included to allow limited address book access just doesn't have any value for me. At least there's simple "Add Sender to Address Book" or else Mail would have no way of updating the address book it relies on.
 
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