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How to Convert from Pine to Eudora for Macintosh

Revised March, 1998 by Client Services

Pine is an e-mail program that is commonly used on the UNIX servers. Many people have accumulated extensive archived messages in Pine e-mail folders and extensive Pine address books. Eudora is an e-mail program that runs on the Macintosh platform. Due to the advantages of Eudora, many people are moving from Pine to Eudora.

This booklet describes how to convert and move a Pine address book and Pine e-mail folders from a UNIX host to a Macintosh for use with Eudora. This conversion allows you to switch to Eudora without losing your accumulated e-mail archive and address book. After the conversion, you'll be able to open the Pine e-mail folders on your Mac just like any other Eudora folder. You'll also be able to use your address book entries in Eudora.

Important note: this is a conversion process. It assumes you'll begin working with Eudora instead of Pine. After the conversion, if you continue to work with Pine, the changes you make will only affect the folders stored in your UNIX directory. After the conversion, when you work with Eudora, the changes you make will only affect the folders on your Macintosh. Again, this is only a conversion process.

 

Part 1: Folder setup on Macintosh

Eudora has a simple method for creating e-mail archive folders. Eudora also has a method for creating nested folders. These instructions tell how to create a folder area to store the Pine folders. If you like, you'll be able to continue to add to your Pine folders. You may find that Eudora's nested folder feature allows you to organize your folders in a more efficient manner. In either case, you'll be able to reference messages in the folders from Pine.

To create a Eudora folder for your Pine folders:

  1. Launch Eudora
  2. Pull down the Mailbox menu and select New...
  3. In the mailbox name field, enter From Pine. Click the Make it a folder check box (this is important!). Click the OK button.
  4. Eudora will then display a second Creating a mailbox window; this time, click the Cancel button.
  5. To check your work, pull down the Mailbox menu again. You should see an entry that says From Pine. You should also see a small triangle alongside the From Pine menu item. Drag down to the From Pine menu item; you should now see a second submenu that lists New... and/or Other.... Since this was just a test, drag the mouse pointer off of the menu and release the mouse button.
  6. Pull down the File menu and select Quit to exit Eudora

Problem solving: If you don't see a small triangle next to the From Pine mailbox, you probably forgot to check the Make it a folder check box when you created the folder. Use the Eudora Windows > Mailboxes option to remove the folder and then try the instructions in this section again.

 

Part 2: Address book format conversion

Pine and Eudora both have an address book feature. In Pine it is called Address book; in Eudora it is called Nicknames. Although they store similar information - the nickname, a full name and the e-mail address or address list - the internal format of the Pine address book file is different from the internal format of the Eudora nickname file.

If you are interested, you can look at the difference between the file format of a Pine address book file, .address book, and a Eudora for Macintosh nickname file, Eudora Nicknames.

You'll need to run a program to rewrite your Pine address book file in the Eudora nickname file format. Don't worry though, we've written the program for you; you'll just need to type the program name at the UNIX command line to create a new file in the Eudora nickname file format. The program won't change your actual Pine address book file; it will create a second file in the Eudora nickname file format.

To create a Eudora nickname file from your Pine address book:

  1. Login to loyno.edu as if you were going to use pine (from a terminal or using NCSATelnet or Kermit). After you have entered your password, you'll see the sign on banner and then the UNIX prompt as usual.
  2. At the UNIX prompt, type Pine2Eudora.Mac.addr
  3. Be sure to type the name exactly as you see it here; type the uppercase and lowercase characters exactly as shown. As the converter runs, you'll see progress messages that will alert you if any errors occur. If all goes well, you'll see a message that says: Address book conversion was successful. The converter will create a file named Eudora.Nicknames. Later, you'll transfer this file to your Macintosh.
  4. Logout from UNIX or continue with Part 3.

 

Part 3: File transfer of Pine folders and converted address book

Eudora works with files and folders that are on your Macintosh hard drive. Before you can read your Pine folders with Eudora, you'll need to transfer the Pine folder files from UNIX to your Macintosh. If you typically use a modem to connect with UNIX and Pine, you may use either a Kermit or ZModem file transfer to move your files.

Here is a generic description of the file transfer process.

To transfer your converted Pine address book and Pine folders:

  1. Launch Fetch, Kermit or another terminal software program
  2. Connect to loyno.edu (it should be the default).
  3. Give your regular login ID and password ( e.g. szkatie; if you are using Fetch, don't use an anonymous login )
  4. Retrieve the Eudora.Nicknames file. Save the file in your Eudora Folder. The Eudora Folder is located in your System Folder. As you save the file, change the name of the Eudora.Nicknames file to Eudora Nicknames (i.e. change the period between Eudora and Nicknames to a SPACE ) Note: This will replace the nicknames that you may have already entered into Eudora!
  5. Change directory into the mail subdirectory of your UNIX home directory.
  6. Retrieve all files from the mail subdirectory; these are your Pine e-mail folders. Save the files in your From Pine folder (this is the folder that you created in Part 1). The From Pine folder is located in your Eudora Folder (which is located in your System Folder)
  7. Logout from loyno.edu. If you connected via modem, hang up the modem.

 

Part 4: Check folders and nicknames in Eudora

Now that you have transferred your Pine folders and address book to your Macintosh, you should check to make sure that you can access them with Eudora.

To check for your e-mail folders:

  1. Launch Eudora.
  2. Pull down the Mailbox menu. Drag down to the From Pine menu item; you should now see a second submenu that lists your Pine folders. Drag over to one of the Pine folders and then release the mouse button. You should now see a list of messages in the folder.
  3. If you like, you can double-click one of the messages to display it on your screen.
  4. Close any messages you have opened and close the Eudora mailbox you opened.

To check your nicknames:

  1. Pull down the Window menu and select the Nicknames menu item. You should see a list of your address book entries. If you click on one of the items in the Nickname box, you'll see the corresponding address in the Address(es) box and the corresponding full name in the Notes box.
  2. Pull down the File menu and select the Quit menu item.

Problem solving: If you don't see any folders listed in the From Pine folder, you may not have quit Eudora after Part 1. Pull down the Eudora File menu and select Quit. Launch Eudora again and check the From Pine folder list.

Problem solving: If you still don't see any folders listed in the From Pine folder, make sure you stored the files from Pine in the proper folder on your Mac. Eudora automatically lists mailboxes that are stored in the Eudora Folder. To check for your Pine folders: double-click the System Folder to open it; then double-click the Eudora Folder to open it; then double-click the From Pine folder to open it. Make sure your Pine files are in the From Pine folder; if needed, drag the Pine files into the From Pine folder.

Problem solving: If you don't see your nicknames listed as expected, make sure you changed the name of the Eudora Nicknames file and make sure that you stored the file in the Eudora Folder. Because UNIX doesn't deal well with SPACEs in file names, the address book conversion program creates a file called Eudora.Nicknames. You'll need to remove the period from the file name after you have transferred it to your Macintosh. If you do not remove the period, Eudora will not recognize the nickname file. To make sure the nickname file is in the proper location: double-click the System Folder to open it; then double-click the Eudora Folder to open it. Make sure the Eudora Nicknames file is in the Eudora Folder.

 

Part 5: Optional steps

Recipient List:

Eudora has an easy method for using your Nicknames. Eudora has an option to include Nicknames on the Recipient List. You should select the Recipient List option for your most commonly use Nicknames ( or maybe even all of them ).

If you pull down the Eudora Message menu, you'll see menu items: New Message, Reply, Forward, Redirect, Send Again. You'll also see those menu items repeated with a small triangle to the right of each menu item. When you use the Message menu items without the small triangle, Eudora leaves the To: line blank. When you drag down to a Message menu items with the small triangle, you'll be able to select from your Recipient List and Eudora will automatically fill in the To: line.

To set the Recipient List option for your Nicknames:

  1. Launch Eudora
  2. Pull down the Window menu and select Nicknames
  3. Double-click items in the Nickname box that you would like to appear on the Recipient List. Nicknames that are marked for the Recipient List will have a bullet mark beside them.
  4. Click the close box on the Nicknames window.
  5. To check your work, pull down the Message menu; drag down to one of the menu items with a small triangle; you should see your Recipient List displayed as a second submenu.

File Types:

Eudora will automatically recognize the message files and address book file you transferred from UNIX; it does this by the name and location of the files.

Once you are confident that the conversion of your Pine folders was successful, you may want to remove the files from UNIX. This will avoid any possible confusion in the future and it will free up valuable disk space on the Information Technology UNIX hosts. Note again: the conversion process described in this paper moves your files from UNIX to your Macintosh; it does not magically allow you to work with the saved message folders still in your UNIX directory via Eudora. After you are happily working with Eudora, you don't need to retain your Pine saved message folders on UNIX.

To remove your Pine folders on UNIX:

  1. Login to loyno.edu as usual. After you have entered your password, you'll see the sign on banner and then the UNIX prompt as usual
  2. Type cd mail at the UNIX prompt.
  3. Important note: watch for any error messages at this point; if you see an error message, do not continue.
  4. Type ls at the UNIX prompt. You should see a list of your old Pine folders. If you do not see a list of your Pine folders, do not continue.
  5. Type rm * ( a single asterisk ) at the UNIX prompt.
  6. Logout from UNIX. If you connected via modem, hang up the modem.

 

Updated September 22, 2008