mailrc to Eudora Address Conversion

This page will convert a tabbed ASCII file, such as those that can be produced by spreadsheets and databases to the equivalent Eudora nicknames file.

Instructions

Note: There is a bug in Eudora 4 which prevents it from accepting the address book that you converted. I have changed to conversion to compensate for this bug. If it still does't work, let me know. The bug has been fixed in the 4.1 beta version, but I can't advise you to use it as it is just a beta version and may have other problems. (Sept. 3 1998)

Note: Read all instructions before doing anything.

Tab delinieated ascii or csv

The input file is a tab or comma separated ascii file, which can be produced by a spreadsheet, database, and perhaps some mail programs. It contains a number of columns. Only the first is necessary. all other columns are optional, but must be there, even if empty, if a column to the right is being used.

Spry

Spry users, ignore all the instructions below, just point the Browse button to the "spry.als" file in the Spry directory and start the process.

Juno

Juno users. Use your ".nv" file as input.

Unix mail/.mailrc

.mailrc conversions. If you know what.mailrc is, you don't neet detailed instructions. Just be sure to ftp the file as ascii.

Compuserve

Compuserve recently made available a download address book add-on that enables the user to do a number of things with their address book files, including EXPORT them. Use GO:UKHF and look in the essentials for Win 3.1 file library for ABM_INST.exe . When the export option is chosen, the resulting dialogue box allows you to chose different delimiting options, including any keyboard characters or tabs. Use the tab option, and then use a spreadsheet to re-arrange the columns To help Compuserve users, addresses in the Compuserve format are converted to the correct Internet format.

Tab ascii examples

Two Examples:

Using only column 1
abc@somewhere.com
Using Columns 1 and 4
abc@somewhere.com <tab><tab>jhd

The columns are described below. Only the first one is mandatory.

E-mail address.
Name 1 Usually first name or full name.
Name 2 Usually last name or leave blank
Alias A unique alias, if it is not unique, it will be made unique. If it is left blank, a unique alias will be produced from the name portion of the e-mail address (the part to the left of the "@" sign).
Comment

In the following columns, as many as needed, put the names of any mailing lists (address list, distribution lists, etc.) that you want this address to be included in.

You can look at a sample input file to clarify the above instructions.

A note on mailing lists: Mailing lists can contain other lists. For example the list "extended family" may contain the lists "parents", "grandparents", "siblings", "aunts/uncles", etc. This input does not give you the opportunity to do this, you will have to do it after importing into Eudora. You will automatically get a list with the alias "everybody" which has in it (as you guessed) everybody on the file.

Using the Browse button below, select the tab-separated ascii file you have produced.
Press the process button
The output is a Eudora nicknames file. Using the File Menu: Save As, save it to the appropriate place with the appropriate name (see below). You might want to rename the nickname file that is already there to save it.

Window 95/98/ME Users, save the file as "nndbase.txt" in your Eudora directory. Windows 2000/XP look under Documents and Settings for the user in question. Delete the file nndbase.toc so that Eudora will regenerate a new table of contents.
Mac Users should save it in "System Folder:Eudora Folder" and rename it "Eudora Nicknames"

If you already have an address book and you have more addresses to add , there are two choices.

Use a word processor to merge the two files. This will only work if you have no duplicate aliases. You can eliminate the duplicate aliases by hand, but be sure you change aliases in the lists too.
Save the address book as with a name such as " newaddresses.txt" in the nicknames folder (which is inside the folder where the main address book goes - see above). You will have new address book called "newaddresses"

Technical Notes

To avoid overburdening the server, we have limited the file to 120k bytes and 1200 lines

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