Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

any free (or cheap) utilities to export outlook pst files to HTML or XML?

(1/3) > >>

avevers:
Hi

At work I am continually reminded that my mailbox quota is getting full (Outlook 2003). I don't want to delete any mails, but would rather be able to export them to another format and then archive them off locally.

Ideally I would like to export them all into a Lotus Notes database (a single .nsf file is attractive to me  :-[ ) but the only option is a $129 utility that I have seen and frankly I was hoping for something a little cheaper or, er, free-er.

So - does anyone know of any utility that allows you to export all or selected mails from an Outlook 2003 pst file to another archival format, such as HTML, XML or even flat text?

Thanks for reading.

Andrew

40hz:
Dumping to a text file is easy. You can do a 'Save As' to text or export to a TSV textfile. Don't know how useful that's going to be for what you want to accomplish, but one how-to (with screenshots) can be found here:

http://www.uwgb.edu/compserv/ehelp/outlook/archive_emails_txt.htm

Luck! :Thmbsup:

avevers:
Thanks for the reply (that URL is blocked at work here so will check later)

The "save as" is a possibility but ideally I would have a singel HTML fiel (maybe even an mht file) per email, as opposed to one long text file.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

daddydave:
What interests me about this question is that you ideally would like the mails in a Lotus Notes format, BUT you'll settle for txt format, BUT have flat out rejected keeping them in a PST file where all the contents would be preserved the most accurately and still could be archived off locally, sparing you from the mailbox quota. So real problem seems not to be the mailbox quota, but that you are having to archive the mails into a format that you loathe. Am I right?

So ideally (there's that word again), you'd like the mails to autoarchive directly from the mailbox to your preferred format, without the PST intermediary. Right?

Don't really have an answer yet, my first stop to try and find Outlook utilities is always Slipstick. Check the Automatic Processing and Housekeeping sections maybe?

steeladept:
DaddyDave, you are not the only one surprised by this.  I know I am no fan of the .PST file mostly because it is practically impossible to use outside of Outlook and corrupts easily, but that doesn't change for the .nsf files.  My main gripe against .PST files is how easily they end up corrupted, but .nsf files are no better (that is what we use at work and it is just as bad).  Personally, I would like to see an email archiver that basically preserves the current email format in a more generic format (ideally non-proprietary, perhaps .xml?) and archives them in .zip, .7z, or other general archive format. I realize this is unlikely at best to ever happen (why buy Outlook if you can archive and maintain your Outlook files in Thunderbird et.al.), but it would be nice.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page