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Thursday, June 23, 2022

How to Index Outlook Emails


MailDex logo


Indexing Outlook Emails with MailDex for Windows 11.


How do you preserve and create a searchable index of Microsoft Outlook email content?  Unless you're a certified Exchange server administrator, you may find it difficult to do.  Over the years, its easy for office workers to amass a tens of thousands or more email messages as they change jobs.  Locked in Outlook .pst or .ost files, these messages contain a treasure of personal information, relationships, proof of work quality, and important networking contacts. 

If you have tens of thousands of emails that cannot be searched, then they're just digital junk taking up space on a hard drive. Try MailDex. It's an Outlook .pst viewer, email converter, indexer, and search tool all rolled into one app.

Using MailDex software for Microsoft Windows 11, anyone can create a searchable index that will quickly return important information from your old emails.  And you can continue to add emails to your index, making it a functional, useful extension of your personal work history.

MailDex is project based. You can have as many projects as you want, and each project can contain as many emails as necessary.  You can create or delete any project at any time.  For example, perhaps you want a project that just contains work emails, and another for personal emails, or yet another for a special work activity.

MailDex doesn't just work with Outlook emails. It can import virtually all major email formats into a database.  For example, emails bundled inside an Outlook .pst or .ost file can be imported, as well as individual message files, like .msg or .eml.  You can also bulk import the open .mbox file format that is used by GMail and Thunderbird email clients.

MailDex can also convert your emails into PDF files or other formats for preservation or sharing.

To get started using MailDex, download the free trial from from the Windows App Store, or from the publisher.



Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Indexing .EML Email Files for Search

Imagine having a Windows folders containing thousands or even millions of .eml email files. One or more of them may contain information of historical or legal significance.

Other than opening each email file individually and reading them, how you can sort through them all to find the few that you need?

MailDex 2018 can help you organize your .eml email files and search them instantly. It also works with .msg, .pst, .ost and .mbox email files, too. 

How to index and search .eml files


MailDex is simple to use.  After installing MailDex on your Windows device and starting the software program,  you need to perform two simple steps:  1.  Create a project, and 2.  Add emails to your project.

To create a project, click the Add Project button and give your project a name.

An arrow pointing to the location of the Create Project button for an email indexing project in MailDex.
Click the Project button to add an email indexing project

Next, add emails to the project using the "Add Emails" button

Image shows the location of the Add Emails button in the MailDex UI.
Add email content to your MailDex project
Select the email content you want MailDex to index for you.  MailDex will optionally search out email content on the drive you choose.  Add single email files, or add folders with emails.

MailDex will begin the indexing process.  When it's finished,  use a simple search to quickly locate emails containing your search term.  More advanced users can create complex searches.

Screen shot of MailDex email search page.
Search your index emails

For more information or a 15 day free trial, visit the MailDex 2018 home page.



Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Convert MBOX Emails to PDF Files

PstViewer Pro is a Windows email viewer for managing different email formats. In PstViewer Pro version 8.0, support has been added for converting email  into nicely formatted PDF files.
Download a free trial of PstViewer Pro and follow along with us.

PstViewer Pro mail list with mbox emails displayed.
PstViewer Pro supports MBOX email conversion to PDF


Converting MBOX Emails to PDF

MBOX to PDF export capabilities are a standard capability of PstViewer Pro. You can export an individual emails or all all emails.   PstViewer Pro can also convert most email file attachments into the PDF image.

First, select one or more Mbox emails from the maillist. Selected emails are highlighted blue.  To select all emails in the list for PDF conversion, type Control-A.  You can select individual emails individually by holding the Windows control key and click on the specific emails.


Screen shot of emails in a PstViewer Pro mail list, highlighted blue.
Selecting Mbox Emails for Export to PDF

Next, go to the Export tab and decide from the different PDF export options


Screen shot showing selection of the PDF export format from a dropdown list.
Choose the PDF export format on the Export tab
Finally, select the "Export" button.


We hope that you will find PStViewer Pro's MBOX to PDF conversion capabilities a useful feature that saves you time and money.  Please post any questions you have in the comments below, or email supportline at encryptomatic.com.  It is  always good to hear from you!






















Thursday, February 25, 2016

MBOX Viewer: PstViewer Pro Supports MBOX Email

The latest version of PstViewer Pro software (8.0) adds support for MBOX email files.   This is useful for anyone who wants to manage email content from email clients that utilize MBOX, such as Mozilla Thunderbird.

View of PstViewer Pro with emails displayed from a MBOX file.
PstViewer Pro now supports MBOX viewing and conversion.


What is MBOX?


Mbox has never been formally defined as a formal specification.  The term is applied to a grup of email messages that have been stored as plain text in a single file (mbox).  The email header information is broken out, including the fields holding the From/To/Subject and Date fields.  Though the text portion of email messages can be viewed by a standard text viewer, PstViewer Pro is able to organize the information so it appears in an organized mail list.

How to Open a MBOX File?


To open a MBOX file and view the emails inside with PstViewer Pro, first locate the file with the Explorer Tree, and select it.

PstViewer Pro will parse the MBOX file and display the individual emails in the mail list. To view any email in the list, just click on it.

You can open an email to full view by double clicking on it.

Email message from an MBOX file is shown in full screen.
Email from MBOX file shown full screen

How to Convert Emails from MBOX to PDF

MBOX to PDF export capabilities are included with PstViewer Pro. You can export all selected emails and most file document file attachments into the PDF file.

To convert Mbox to Pdf, follow these steps.

First, select one or more Mbox emails from the mail list. When an email is selected it is highlighted.  To choose all emails in the list, type Control-A.  To select emails individually, hold the Windows control key and click on the desired emails.


Screen shot of emails in a list, highlighted blue.
Select Mbox Emails to Export to PDF

Second, go to the Export tab and choose from the different PDF export options


Screen shot showing how to select the PDF export format from a dropdown list.
Choose the PDF export format on the Export tab
Lastly, click the "Export" button.


We hope that you will find MBOX support a useful new feature for PstViewer Pro.  Please post any questions you have in the comments below, or email supportline at encryptomatic.com.  We're always happy to hear from you!






















Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Two Ways to Export Email From A Microsoft Outlook Folder

Microsoft Outlook stores email in Personal Storage Tables, or PST files.  Each Outlook Pst file can contain multiple folders, and each folder may contain hundreds, perhaps thousands of email messages.

Outlook automatically creates several default folders inside a Pst file, including Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, and Deleted Items. Outlook users can create additional email folders. There is no limit to the number of files that you can add to a Pst file.

Outlook 2016 how to add a folder to a pst file.
Right Click in Outlook to add a folder to a Pst file.
Pst file folders are useful for sorting and organizing email messages. Some Outlook users may meticulously file emails into folders. Others will configure Outlook rules that automatically move email into the appropriate email folder.

Sometimes it may be useful to copy emails from from an Outlook folder to somewhere else, perhaps a desktop folder, Dropbox, a USB stick, etc.

There are two software products from Encryptomatic LLC that  can assist you with exporting email from specific Outlook .pst file folders:  MessageExport and PstViewer Pro.

MessageExport is an add-in that works from within the Outlook menu system. MessageExport requires Microsoft Outlook 2016 through 2007 to do it's work.  If you have Outlook, then MessageExport is a good choice.

PstViewer Pro is a standalone Windows application that does not require Outlook.  If you don't have Outlook, then PstViewer Pro is a good choice.

Download a 15 day free trial of either or both products and follow along with the tutorials below.

Exporting an Outlook Folder with MessageExport

MessageExport add-in for Outlook

MessageExport installs as part of the Outlook menu system.  To export an Outlook folder, first locate the folder and highlight it by clicking on it.

Next, select the target export format from the MessageExport dropdown list.

Click "Export" to start the process.

MessageExport will begin exporting all of the emails from the selected Outlook folder, converting them to the chosen file format.   You can convert all email from an Outlook folder into many different file types, including .msg, .eml, .csv, .docx, .odt, jpg, gif, tif, png, .pdf, and others.

Exported files can be given a custom file name that incorporates bits of the email meta data.  This is done by editing the export profile

Exporting an Outlook Folder with PstViewer Pro


PstViewer Pro is Windows application that reads multiple email formats (.pst, .ost, .msg, eml, .mbox). It does not require Microsoft Outlook.

To export email from an Outlook .pst folder with PstViewer Pro, follow these steps.

First, from the Export menu, choose among the target formats. In this example, we are exporting email to the .eml format.

Exporting an Outlook .pst folder with PstViewer Pro
Next, select the folder containing the emails you want to export.

Select the email folder


From the maillist, type Ctrol-A to select all of the emails in that folder.

Finally, click the "Export" button. All selected emails within the Pst file folder will now be converted to the selected file format (in this example, .eml)


We hope this article helps you with your email conversion project. If you have any questions, please post them in comments below. We are always glad to assist you.




Wednesday, February 3, 2016

MSG to JPG: How to Bulk Convert Outlook .Msg Emails to JPG Format?

Save .msg emails as .jpg image files with Pst Viewer Pro email viewing software for Microsoft Windows.
Email viewer converts Outlook emails from .eml or .msg to .jpg images

Outlook emails stored as .msg or .eml email files can be preserved as image files, such as JPG. Converting email to .jpg makes them easy to view, reduces their size and ensures that the message formatting is preserved exactly as it was originally intended.  This useful functionality is built into PstViewer Pro email viewing software by Encryptomatic LLC. PstViewer Pro is an email viewer that displays Outlook .pst, .ost, .msg, .mbox and .eml files.

Although today we are specifically discussing msg to jpg email conversion, this article is easily adapted to other email-to-image format conversion pairings, such as pst to jpg, mbox to jpg, or eml to gif.

Download a free 15 day trial of PstViewer Pro software for Microsoft Windows and follow along. The trial requires Windows 10 through Vista with the latest service packs installed. Microsoft Outlook is not required on your computer for PstViewer Pro to render Outlook emails.

When PstViewer Pro starts, locate the folder holding your Outlook .msg emails. Selecting that folder in the folder explorer navigation will load those msg files into PstViewer Pro's mail list.

.Msg email files are shown in the software mail list.  An email message is selected and previewed in the viewing pane.
Select .msg emails that you want to convert to .jpg format.

Next, use PstViewer Pro's search and filtering capabilities to identify which of the msg files in the mail list will be converted to a JPG image.  There are a rage of filtering and search options you can use.  When finished, type Control-A on your keyboard to highlight (select) all of the remaining emails for jpg conversion.


Search and filter emails you want to convert to .jpg format.
Search through .msg files to find those you want to convert to .jpg format.

Finally, from the Export tab,  choose "JPG" and click "Export."  The export operation will continue until all of the email message bodies have been rendered and converted into JPG image files.
Screen shot of export window showing the JPG format selected.
Start the conversion process by selecting "JPG" and click "Export."
When the conversion operation is complete, your jpg files will include a header that shows the basic email information, such as From, To, Subject, etc.   The shape and size of the jpg images will vary according to the length of the original email message.

Sample jpg image produced by converting an email from .msg file.
A .msg email that has been converted to .jpg format.

If you have any questions about converting email into Jpg or other image formats, please post them below. We're always glad to help.  We hope this article will help you with your project.










Thursday, January 28, 2016

Email to Text: Converting Outlook Emails in .Pst Files to Text Files

Email viewer main window showing email messages in the mail list.
Convert Email to Text Files

If your occupation involves handling email, there may be times you want to convert email to text files. Text is easily shared and compressed. Text files don't trigger anti-virus warnings.  They are easily indexed and don't occupy very much space. Text is easily copied and pasted, or imported into spreadsheets.  Whatever your reasons for wanting to convert email to text, this article will show you how to do it using PstViewer email viewer software for Microsoft Windows. We invite you to download a free trial of PstViewer Pro and follow along.

How to Convert Email to Text with PstViewer Pro


Step 1.  Start PstViewer Pro
Use the left-hand folder navigation to locate the email files.  PstViewer Pro is can read Outlook .pst, .ost and .msg files, and also .Mbox and .eml files that are used by email clients like Thunderbird and Eudora.  Select the folder or file and the emails will populate the mail list.  You can use the sort and search functions in PstViewer Pro to winnow the emails in the list.
Select the Windows folder where your emails reside.
Select the Windows folder with your email messages.



Step 2.  Select the emails from the list

Screen shot of email viewer with emails in the list.
Select Emails to convert to Text
Choose one or more emails from the mail list.  Type "Ctrol-A" on your Windows keyboard to select all messages in the list.  Selected emails will appear highlighted.

Step 3. Click "Export" button on the Export tab.
To start the emai-to-text conversion process, on the "Export" menu, click the "Export" button.

Software screen shot of PstViewer Pro'semail export menu with Text selected.
Text conversion format selected on the Export tab
 The process will continue until all emails have been converted into text files.

Other Options

 PstViewer Pro has additional options that you may find useful, such as:
  • give the text files a useful file name
  • zip compress the text files
  • convet multiple emails to one text file.
  • copy for review those emails that cannot be exported to text
  • log errors while converting for review
  • email file attachments can be ignored or extracted to a folder
    Edit the email export options for the text conversion profile.
    Options for exporting email to text
You can access these additional features by editing the Text conversion profile.  From the export menu with Text showing in the export list, click "Edit."
Screen image of Edit Profile option.
Edit Text Export Profile


Conclusion

We hope this article will help you bulk export email files into text documents.  Pst Viewer Pro is useful tool for anyone that needs to work with email, search email, or convert it to differnet formats like text.

If you have any questions, post them below.