Re: I want to archive oe mail

anon wrote:
> Any suggestions for a program (free if possible) which will do the
> following to my oe mail:
>
> 1 save individual folders I created in oe into individual archived
> folders.

Your OE .dbx files are in a proprietary MS compression of a proprietary
MS db format.  They are 'reasonably' efficient if compacted.  Naturally
there are all kinds of alternative compression schemes which can archive
and compress the compressed files more compactly -- the degreee of
compactness being affected by how fast you want the compression program
to perform its duties - and the choice of compression formats also being
slightly affected by how fast you want any further decompression to be
performed.

> 2 allow the archived mail to be read (and appear) like it
> did when I received it.

Do you mean to read it with something other than OE?

> 3 allow me to open each archived mail in an oe like environment.

But not OE?  I'm not quite clear whether or not you are wanting to have
OE functionality without having OE.  But maybe you would be interested
in the Express Archiver
http://www.fileedge.com/Cat/Utilities/Backup/Express-Archiver.html
"fully reads Outlook Express dbx files and lets you view, backup and
export mails, news or all attachments in a few clicks."

> 4 archived mail to contain the original date (header info) and be
> listed in the original order (usually by date received.)

If it is the .dbx file you are working with, that will be the case.  It
will also be the case if you are converting the .dbx into a different
format such as one of the unix mailbox or mbox formats.  Beware the
incompatibilities between various mbox formats.

There is also this ware made by MailNavigator

http://www.mailnavigator.com/outlook-express-dbx-backup.html DBX
Backup - effective tool for regular backuping and recovering of emails
in Outlook Express folders.

http://www.mailnavigator.com/read_outlook_express_dbx_files.html
Mailbox Reader for Outlook Express DBX file format

> 5 the archiving operation to semi automated so that I do not have to
> manually open each and every subfolder to get the mail archived (I
> have many, many folders.)

If it were me doing it, I would keep things as .dbx files and develop an
backup scheme for backing up the folder of all of the .dbx files,
including folders.dbx  -- whether your backup program chooses to
compress the folder of .dbx files is an option.  You will keep things
'tighter' if you compact all of your .dbx folders before you back them
up.


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin