Import to KDE mail client?

[dr_debauch]

Okay, I'm currently in the process of ditching my XP box in favor of a linux distro. I've currently installed Kubuntu (AMD64 version) and it's up, running, etc. I've got damned near everything I need for my normal use- the rest I can implement as I need it. The only problem I'm having is importing my archived email, etc. from Outlook's .pst (or any other type of exported file Outlook creates!). I'm currently planning on using Kontact for a couple of reasons: First, and foremost, it came with the distro and I'm lazy. Second, by all accounts its actually a very good program emulating most, if not all of Outlook's functionality.

Since I know there have been any number of people making this same transision, or a similar one into Evolution, anybody got any helpful pointers on making this work? The last thing I found on making this work was an open-source project called "Outport" that hasn't been updated since mid-2003.

Thanks for the help folks!

 

[dr_debauch]

Not often one gets to be the sole reply to their own post- so I'll take the opportunity when I have it.

Got the export from outlook -> Kontact to work with only minor hoop-jumping-through on my part.

1. On my XP Pro box, I installed thunderbird and imported all my contacts and mail from Outlook.
2. I then exported from thunderbird my addressbook as an .ldif backup and my mail I left in it's profile's location (../application default/../9asdf098234.default/../mail/).
3. Make both the backup addressbook and the mail directory for thunderbird available to the Kubuntu machine- network, cd, usb drive, etc.
4. Get the files local to the Kubuntu machine since imports don't appear to like to work from networked locations.
5. On the ubuntu machine Install the kmailcvt package to allow importing/converting to kmail.
6. On contact portion of kontact, go up top, hit tools and select import from an ldap file.
7. Point it to the .ldif backup you copied to the Kubuntu machine.
8. For the mail messages, after having kmailcvt installed, click on the mail section of kontact (kmail).
9. Click tools>import.
10. Select import from an mbox file.
11. Point it to the corresponding files from the thunderbird profile. (for example, I tend to be a packrat- I save my email by having it in the trash folder and never emptying it. For me, it tends to create a single very large folder for me to import. I pointed the Kontact import tool at that folder and it created a new folder called Trash that contained all my old messages.)
12. Finish!

I relocated the imported mail from the folders that were created in the import process to the corresponding folders that were already in existance (I moved stuff from the newly created trash folder to the existing one, inbox to inbox, etc.). As a word of warning for people that store things in their trash folder, by default Kontact/kmail has it delete things from it on exit. I got to run the import twice after learning that the hard way!