Outlook Replacement Suggestions

I don't see any reason you couldn't use Apple Mail. Maybe someone else will chime in.

However...I would get with the times and start using an exchange account or IMAP account for email. It will make your life much, much easier when accessing your email with all devices. It can sync every single folder, so moving from PC to PC to Phone etc. is seamless.

 

If you want to use Apple OSX Mail but also want to connect to an (older) Exchange server you can use DavMail, works superb!

BTW DavMail is also handling all other Exchange functions like calendar (converting to iCal) and address book to the OSX Address Book...

The OSX Mail search function is way faster....

 

Outlook for Mac is best avoided...I paid a premium but it's so full of bugs that fiddling with it drove me nuts in the end. I'm not a big fan of Applemail either so choose Thunderbird as my email client. Bolt ons as you wish include calendar etc. It's free, regularly updated, and works well.


http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Other solutions exist, but FWIW, T/Bird works well for me.

 

Seems like a good opportunity to switch to the best e-mail server + client: Gmail.

To import all e-mails from your POP accounts :

1. Create a Gmail account.
2. On your current PC, connect to your Gmail account via Outlook, on Google's IMAP server.
3. Create folders* as needed, and copy your old e-mails into them.

That's it. From then on, you will never have to worry about switching OSes or e-mail clients. You can access your e-mails anywhere on gmail.com.

They even have an Exchange-compatible server (m.google.com) that pushes e-mails, contacts and calendars. On iPhones or iPads, I recommend you use the Exchange-compatible server as it supports push updates for e-mails.

EDIT: I forgot to mention: you can keep receiving e-mails on your old e-mail addresses (those POP accounts), and they will land in your Gmail account. See Gmail's Mail Fetcher.

* folders = IMAP folders. They appear as labels in the web-based Gmail client.

 

This ! Davmail does miracles in every platform when it comes to exchange integration. And it is amazing that it does all these things with almost zero configuration. I'm using it in my work under Mac and Linux for corporate mail exchange server, that will not even let any other clients (it doesn't provide POP functionality) connect.

 

There are a number of solutions that use POP - many offer trials so you can see what works best for you. I like Mail and use it for my GMail and Hotmail based mail; I also use Outlook for Exchange server mail simply because it's the most hassle free way I have to reliably get that mail.

PST files, as far as I know, are MS Outlook specific - so while you can convert them you won't keep them synched with an Exchange server.

Actually, OSX's search function is as good or better than outlooks - but I use a program called EasyFind because it allows rules based searches.

Mail does the usual find anything with the following and allows to search by address s well. Pretty basic.

Good luck. there are programs that do that, I gave up because of the problems with lost attachments, busted addresses,etc.

Despite it's flaws, I've found Outlook to be the most robust client for Exchange server - and haven't really had any problems except it periodically decides to disconnect from the server with a bad password message - I reenter the (same) pw and it works fine again.

 

I use Thunderbird.

I use IMAP not POP3 so haven't had to import PST files as that happened automatically, but I'd imagine Thunderbird can do it.

 

Open Mac App Store and search for .pst in the search field !

/Niels

 

In Lion, the search in Apple Mail is fantastic and much, much better than what is available in Outlook on either Windows or Mac. I exported all my mail out of my pst folders on the windows machine into Thunderbird, I think, and then imported all those messages into Apple Mail. The structure of the PSTs remained and everything is accessible in Mail.

I really think Apple Mail is the best solution for what you have described after you export all the content from your PST files into a more standard email format. Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly what I used or how I exported the messages from the PST files.

 

Best is always subjective. Outlook 2011 works well for me but I'm using an Exchange account.

 

A PST is a Microsoft Outlook proprietary format, so not standard as in being as universally acceptable (kind of like .docx versus .txt), the .docx has proprietary information imbedded within and needs the correct codecs to utilize fully where as .txt is easily transportable.

 

MBOX files are the open standard for email storage. If you can convert your PST to that, it'll open in pretty much any email program (and Quicklook can even give you some information about it).

jW