Eudora 7 – Change Your Outlook On Email

If Windows’ free email client, Outlook Express, doesn’t offer enough oomph for you, but you do not require the robust communication and schedule management features of Microsoft Outlook, you might want to give Eudora a look. This serviceable email program, which is available in paid, sponsored (free with ads), and light (free, no ads) versions is a popular alternative to Microsoft’s offerings.

First, Eudora uses the general Microsoft interface framework, so the program, at first glance, will look familiar to Windows users. However, visual elements such as icons, menu items, and in some cases, operational logic are quite different from its Microsoft competitors.

Second, the Eudora’s New Account Setup Wizard to import a rather complex Outlook configuration, an unknown problem transpired that caused Eudora to crash and also caused Outlook to lose track of all our data folders, email accounts, signatures, and rules, and very oddly, the Rules And Alerts feature, as well.

The logical answer is that the Windows Registry was somehow corrupted during the import process (thank heavens for System Restore). However, the technical staff at Qualcomm insists that Eudora does not make changes to the Windows Registry and that some other background process must have caused this problem. As always erring on the side of safety, highly recommend that users with complex or data-intensive Outlook configurations avoid using this feature and instead handle the import process using a workaround.

If you are starting from scratch or want to migrate ALL your pre-existing data to Eudora, Eudora makes the process painless. Download and installation of Eudora is a breeze, you can even go ahead and download important documents such as the Read Me file and the users manual from the same site. (If you aren’t an installation pro, review the Read Me file first, as it offers a step-by-step explanation of the installation process.) When you open Eudora for the first time, the New Account Setup Wizard opens and will help you establish a new account or migrate your existing one (this is an all-or-nothing proposition).

If you want to ensure maintaining your existing email system for the time being (or want more control over the import process) Eudora offers manual setup options. When the New Account Setup Wizard opens, select Skip Directly To Advanced Account Setup.

Later, use the Advanced option in Eudora’s Import feature on the File menu to import your Netscape preferences and data (this requires some preconfiguration), Outlook Express folders and address book, or Outlook personal data files. Unfortunately, there is no way to import text files. Using the Import feature, Eudora also will not maintain folder/subfolder hierarchies (you can resolve this later by moving mailboxes about).

If you can get past the installation and interface quirks, Eudora is a nice program. The paid version offers a decent spam filter, a robust rules feature, and interesting oddities such as graphical usage charts. Another highlight is Eudora’s lightening-fast search feature, which maintains an ongoing index of your messages.

In the final analysis, some of Eudora’s apparent quirks are actually improvements over its competitors. For example, Eudora opens the preview pane of each folder you access as a new window rather than as a replacement for the existing window. This lets you toggle from one open folder to the next by clicking it in the taskbar just beneath the preview pane. For PC users just starting out, Eudora is a fine program. For anyone migrating from another email client, however, it is a hot potato to be handled with care.

[tags]email client, eudora[/tags]