I hate techie issues but I'm feeling quite proud of myself as I've just managed to load my back up copy of my Outlook Express Address book wab file into Thunderbird - and it works.
Last week my PC went up in smoke.
This week i have a new PC using Windows 7 and that doesn't have Outlook Express which has been my preferred email software.
Since I had to learn a new email program I decided to switch to Mozilla Thunderbird on the basis that Firefox is so much better than Internet Explorer, it has to be worth a try.
It's amazing when you don't have your address book that you think "I must contact ...." and you realise you no longer have their details.
Thunderbird have an Import from Outlook Express utility but it seems to assume that you've got Outlook Express loaded. When you haven't, you can't choose to pick up the file from another location.
And of course you find yourself having to convert the address book wab file.
Here's what i did.
Download a software conversion program called Dawn - it doesn't say it works with Windows 7 but I managed to get it to.
That opens up the wab address book file and let's you choose how you want to convert it.
I tried the Thunderbird option first - but all that did was cause Dawn to stop working.
I then tried to convert to a csv file and loaded that into Thunderbird.
Unfortunately that produced gibberish.
One more time I thought so I saved the file as a ldif file since Thunderbird offer to load them.
Tried it and...
Voila - I have my old Outlook Express address book in Thunderbird.
I haven't got all the old contact information but at least I have name and email address.
To say I'm relieved is an understatement.
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