Importing Options – what they are for?

This article describes the purpose of the settings in the “Importing Options” group in Outlook Import Wizard, as well as examples of their use.

You can view additional options for Outlook Import Wizard by clicking the “Options” button on the second page of the wizard. All of the program’s options are split up into groups. Let’s look at the settings in the “Importing Options” group, which, as the name implies, specify how the program will import messages. We will also look at examples for each of these options and cases where their use is recommended (the default state of the settings is given in parentheses).

• “Import MSG files as RFC 822 text eml format” (disabled).
  Some mail programs (such as The Bat) offer the option of saving e-mails in MSG format. These files are in no way related to the original MSG Outlook format, and are instead normal EML messages with a different file extension instead of the EML extension. If you are not sure of the origin of the source MSG files, or the post-import MSG files are displayed incorrectly in Outlook (as attachments, most often), then you should convert MSG to PST by activating this option.

• “Create the structure of PST subfolders” (enabled).
  This option specifies whether to preserve folder structure when you import messages. When this option is turned on, the Windows folder tree where the EML/MSG files are saved is transferred to the PST file structure, creating the appropriate folders in Outlook. If this option is turned off, then e-mails will be placed as a single array in the user-chosen directory inside of a PST file. This can be especially useful when attempting to transfer email from another mail client (Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Thunderbird) while preserving organization.

• “Enable the EML preprocessing (Unix, MAC)” (enabled).
  The function for EMLX convert preprocessing converts EMLX files (the equivalent of .eml for Unix and Mac OS mail clients) into a Windows-compatible format. You must make sure that this option is enabled if you are working with e-mails which were previously exported from mail programs on Unix (Kmail) or the Mac OS (Mac Mail). If you convert EMLX files without this additional conversion, they may be displayed incorrectly by MS Outlook and other Windows mail programs.

• “Create importing PST subfolder for each session” (enabled).
  Another option that is responsible for PST file structure. If the option is turned on, then for each EML to PST or MSG to PST import session, the program creates a separate folder in the user-specified internal Outlook directory, creating the appropriate folders in Outlook. Outlook Import Wizard places messages there taking subfolders into account (as long as “Create the structure of PST subfolder” is enabled). The advantages of this feature can be truly appreciated when working with large hierarchical groups of messages, for example, when combining mail for a company’s employees (or messages from several mail clients) into a single Outlook PST file. In order to avoid mixing up correspondence between different employees (or between different mail clients), messages are imported in separate sessions and are automatically placed by the program in the subfolder that has been created.

• “Overwrite log files” (enabled).
  Each import session from EML to PST, MSG to PST or other attempt to convert email files is accompanied by an event log displaying the status of the current operation, any errors, the beginning and end time of the session, and so on. Besides being displayed in the main program window, the information is recorded in a text log file, which is overwritten after every session if this option is turned on. Otherwise, a separate log file is created for each session in the program folder. Keeping separate logs is useful when regularly using Outlook Import Wizard to update PST files with new messages, for example, if the PST file is used as a PST archive or backup message copy.

• “Choose Profile to import e-mails” (disabled).
  This option is used only together with the email to PST conversion mode by default. If the option is inactive, then any attempts to import EML and MSG files will write the resulting files to the current e-mail profile. When enabled, the user will be prompted to choose an alternative configuration. The configuration and mail profiles are found in the Mail and Control Panel settings (Windows XP). This Outlook Import Wizard feature will prove of great benefit when attempting to import messages onto a PC which has multiple user accounts and multiple e-mail accounts as well.

• “Create standard Outlook folders in new PST file” (enabled).
  This options is used to make only e-mail related folders during the new PST file creation. If the option is disabled, the new PST file will contain only: Deleted Items, Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items folders, so you will be able to choose one of them as target to import e-mails. If the option is enabled the whole default structure of Outlook folders will be created in the new PST file: Calendar, Contacts, Drafts, Journal, Notes, Tasks, Junk E-mail, Deleted Items, Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items.

• “Skip Mac intermediate “Messages” subfolder creation” (disabled).
  The Mac software stores emails inside the special sub-folder named “Messages” which is created inside each folder or subfolder containing emails. This “Messages” folder does not appear looking from inside the MAC Mail software, it is only a hidden implementation subfolder. The option makes it possible to skip this intermediate “Messages” subfolder creation and write down directly the mail it contains in the “real” (visible) user folder.

• “Preserve Date and Time for converted files” (disabled).
  This special option make it possible to generate the same date creation for the converted files as the one for the source files. This would make it possible to keep sorting chronologically the email correspondence.

• “Prompt for the name of personal storage” (disabled).
  The default name of the storage is “Outlook Import Wizard”. If the option is active, the program will prompt you for a new name prior to creating a new PST file. The option will not work if the data is imported into the default Outlook profile. The option is only active for Enterprise and Site editions and is permanently disabled for home users.

This article describes the purpose of the settings in the “Importing Options” group in Outlook Import Wizard, as well as examples of the use of these settings.