Import all Your E-Mail to GMail
I just located this great free app that will help transfer all of your existing e-mail on your PC to your GMail account. If you use a Mozilla based e-mail program, you are in luck as it will easily work with this app. It's called GMail Loader. There is a number of e-mail formats supported, but the only common one is the mBox format used by Mozilla, Netscape and any other good app. Oddly, I always thought Opera used that format for exporting e-mail, but Opera e-mails are in an .MBS file, not a .MBX file like mBox. Good news for Opera users though, there is an MBS-to-MBX utility.
If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express like many people do, check out this page for some info on how to convert mail formats to mBox. I have only tried the Opera conversion, so I can't say if converting from other apps works fine, but it's worth a shot.
Doing this in Opera was a cinch since it already has mail sorted by different categories. It was as simple as exporting each folder I wanted, then having each convert separately in the MBS-toMBX app. Then I uploaded each MBX file one at a time and applied labels to each group of messages and then archived them. Then I would simply upload the next group and do the same thing. I also made sure and try and set up as many filters as possible ahead of time so mail would automatically be organized.
One thing about GMail, it has some features that are similar to Opera's M2 client. Like having multiple labels per message. Opera also allows messages to have multiple labels, and is very useful for some messages.
What is the main feature that GMail needs to get soon? Learning filters. Opera supposedly has this feature now in it's latest version, but I haven't tried it since I have been using an app POPFile. The main reason I started to use POPFile was for it's spam blocking. It learns what messages are spam, and is able to adapt in the future. At first this does require a training period where you have to classify messages and spam or not, but it learns very quickly. And the longer you use it, the better it gets. This is why I never switched to Opera's learning feature since POPFile was 99.6% accurate. But, it doesn't just work with spam. It's good for just organizing your email. For instance, I read a lot of forums. I like receiving e-mails when posts I have posted in are responded to. So, I have a folder in my email for those messages. Before, everytime I would join a forum, I would set up a new filter for messages from that forum. But, with POPFile, it would just know that it was a forum response message and always classify it as such, even if it was the first message from that forum.
If Google was able to add a learning feature like that to labels, I would be a happy person.
If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express like many people do, check out this page for some info on how to convert mail formats to mBox. I have only tried the Opera conversion, so I can't say if converting from other apps works fine, but it's worth a shot.
Doing this in Opera was a cinch since it already has mail sorted by different categories. It was as simple as exporting each folder I wanted, then having each convert separately in the MBS-toMBX app. Then I uploaded each MBX file one at a time and applied labels to each group of messages and then archived them. Then I would simply upload the next group and do the same thing. I also made sure and try and set up as many filters as possible ahead of time so mail would automatically be organized.
One thing about GMail, it has some features that are similar to Opera's M2 client. Like having multiple labels per message. Opera also allows messages to have multiple labels, and is very useful for some messages.
What is the main feature that GMail needs to get soon? Learning filters. Opera supposedly has this feature now in it's latest version, but I haven't tried it since I have been using an app POPFile. The main reason I started to use POPFile was for it's spam blocking. It learns what messages are spam, and is able to adapt in the future. At first this does require a training period where you have to classify messages and spam or not, but it learns very quickly. And the longer you use it, the better it gets. This is why I never switched to Opera's learning feature since POPFile was 99.6% accurate. But, it doesn't just work with spam. It's good for just organizing your email. For instance, I read a lot of forums. I like receiving e-mails when posts I have posted in are responded to. So, I have a folder in my email for those messages. Before, everytime I would join a forum, I would set up a new filter for messages from that forum. But, with POPFile, it would just know that it was a forum response message and always classify it as such, even if it was the first message from that forum.
If Google was able to add a learning feature like that to labels, I would be a happy person.