Transferring Files, E-mail, and Bookmarks (Favorites) from a Macintosh (Mac OS 9/X) to a Windows PC
Article
Transferring Files, E-mail, and Bookmarks (Favorites)
from a Macintosh (MacOS 9/X) to a Windows PC (2000/XP)
Abstract
This document details the procedure for properly moving files between a Macintosh (9/X) and a Windows (2000/XP) machine. The following details are covered:
Files
- Mac OS file types and creators and their relation to standard file extensions
- Naming convention differences between Mac OS and Windows
- Converting mail from:
- Apple Mail (Mac OS X)
- Netscape Mail (Mac OS 9/X)
- Qualcomm Eudora (Mac OS 9/X)
- To the following formats:
- Microsoft Outlook 2003
- Qualcomm Eudora
Bookmarks and Favorites
- Converting bookmarks from:
- Apple Safari (Mac OS X)
- Mozilla Firefox (Mac OS X)
- Netscape (Mac OS 9/X)
- To the following formats:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer Favorites
- Mozilla Firefox
- Netscape
Due to the complex nature of such a task, several shareware utilities and commercial products will be used to complete the conversion.
Files
Macintosh File Creators, File Types, and File Extensions
Moving files between a Windows computer and a Macintosh is not a complicated task, as long as files have been properly named in a way that both computers understand. Windows computers rely heavily upon files extensions such as .doc,.txt, or .pdf. Mac OS X computers also frequently use extensions, but are not required. Both Mac OS 9 and X rely on a pair of metadata called “File type” and “File creator”. Below is a standard chart of expected File types and creators along with the universal file extension.
File Description
Extension Mac OS File Type
Mac OS File Creator
Microsoft Word (98 – 2004) .doc W8BN MSWD Microsoft Excel (98 – 2004) .xls XLS8 XCEL Microsoft Powerpoint (98 – 2004)
.ppt SLD8 PPT3
JPEG Image File .jpg JPEG (various) GIF Image File .gif GIFf (various) Text File .txt TEXT (various) Rich Text File .rtf RTF (various) Because file extensions are unnecessary on Mac OS computers, many users will often omit them entirely. To solve this problem, use the shareware program File Manipulator by Chaotic Software to create a droplet to automatically add file extensions based on the file creators above.
Open the File Manipulator program, and create a new droplet from the File menu.
Create a new rule to add ‘.doc’ to files that have the creator ‘MSWD’ if they do not already have an extension.
Continue to create rules for each other format listed above.
Adding a general TEXT rule is not very advisable however, as many files are plain text format, such as html pages, postscript files, and others.
Naming Conventions in Windows and Mac OS X
Taking care of adding extensions to any files which do not already contain them is an important step in assuring compatibility between platforms. However, Windows does not allow many of the special characters which are allowed on the Macintosh platform, and we need to take care of them before transferring the files. Below is a summary of restricted characters in each operating system.
Windows 2000/XP NTFS / : * ? " < > | 256 characters Mac OS 9 HFS/HFS+ : 31 characters Mac OS X HFS+/UFS : / 255 characters Also, Windows folders and files are not allowed to have spaces at the beginning or end of file or folder names. Windows uses preventative measures to prevent a user from creating a file that start or end with a space, but does not compensate for files moved with spaces from another operating system. If you attempt to move a file that starts or ends with a space, Windows will give the following error: Cannot copy/move/open file: Cannot read from the source file or disk.
So, armed with this knowledge, create another droplet including all these rules. Eliminating the troublesome characters or replacing them with compatible ones.
You may download each of these completed droplets. To use them, separate all the documents you wish to make compatible into one folder (which may contain subfolders). In the Finder drag the folder containing all the files onto the droplet icon. All these applications are compatible with Mac OS 9 and X.
- Download the Droplets Here Including:
- Add File Extensions Droplet
- Compatible Characters Droplet
- Combo Droplet (Containing all the actions from both)
The key to converting email between platforms is getting the mail into a universal format. Fortunately, most programs already use the same format, the UNIX mbox. Programs that use this format include Apple Mail, Qualcomm Eudora, and Netscape Mail.
Mail Locations
Locate the mbox files you wish to transfer to the Windows machine. They are typically located in the following locations:
Eudora Macintosh HD/Documents/Eudora Folder/Mail Folder/mailbox-name Netscape Mail Macintosh HD/System Folder/Preferences/Netscape Folder/Profiles/profile-name/Mail/mailbox-name Apple Mail ~/Library/Mail/account-name/mailbox-name.mbox/mbox Eudora ~/Documents/Eudora Folder/Mail Folder/mailbox-name Netscape Mail ~/Library/Mozilla/Profiles/default/random-string/Mail/account-name/mailbox-name Rename for Eudora Usage
In order to convert these for Windows usage, prepare the mail for usage in the Windows Eudora. Rename each of the mbox files to mailbox-name.mbx. All the above programs use different methods of indexing the files, but store the actual mail in an mbox file. Only backup the mbox files. (Note that while possible, this document will not explain how to backup attachments). Below is an example of how you would rename each mbox into a Eudora mbx file.
Apple Mail inbox.mbox/mbox rename to in.mbx Qualcomm Eudora INBOX rename to in.mbx Netscape Mail Inbox rename to in.mbx Convert Line Breaks
Mac OS and Windows also have a different standards for a line break or carriage return. Examine the differences below.
Mac OS 9 r Mac OS X (UNIX) n Windows rn If we do not convert these line breaks, Eudora will recognize the list of messages, but the body of the message will be blank. A simple way to convert these mailboxes to use the Windows format line breaks is using Wordpad.exe (in Windows only). Open the .mbx file, then choose File→Save As… Save the .mbx as a "Text Document – MS-DOS" file.
Now you may drop the .mbx files into the Eudora folder on the Windows machine. The Eudora folder is typically located at C:|Documents and SettingsusernameApplication DataQualcommEudora.
Open Eudora and confirm that all the mailboxes are properly visible and setup. Open the menu item Tools→Options and configure the program for receiving and sending mail if you have not already done so. This completes importing mail into Eudora.
Importing Mail into Outlook XP/2003
Outlook includes a built-in import engine for Eudora. According to the import wizard however, it only supports Eudora 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x. The format of Eudora’s mail storage has not changed in newer versions, but the location of storage has. We simply need to make Eudora’s mail visible to Outlook by putting the mail files where Outlooks expects to find them.
Follow the below procedure to complete the import.
- Close Eudora if it is open.
- Open the C:Program FilesQualcomm folder in Explorer
- Duplicate the "Eudora" folder located there so you have "Eudora" and "Eudora Copy"
- Open the data folder for Eudora at C:Documents and SettingsusernameApplication DataQualcommEudora
- Select all the files located within this folder and copy them to the Eudora Program File Folder at C:Program FilesQualcommEudora
- Open Outlook
- Select File→Import and Export…
- Select the bottom option in the new dialog box "Import Internet Mail and Addresses".
- Click Next
- Select Eudora from the list of programs to import from. If there is no Eudora option, then Outlook is unable to find the Eudora data files in the the "C:Program FilesQualcommEudora" folder.
- Click Next
- Change the options for importing duplicates if you wish
- Click Next
- Wait while Outlook imports all the mail from Eudora
- Confirm the mail has been imported and close Outlook
- In Explorer open C:Program FilesQualcomm.
- Delete the "Eudora" folder (Make sure you’ve made the above "Eudora Copy" duplicate first!)
- Rename the "Eudora Copy" folder to "Eudora"
- If Explorer gives an error about breaking certain programs by renaming the folder, go ahead and click Okay.
The import from Eudora to Outlook is now complete. You may want to confirm the Contacts in Outlook are acceptable. This process often does not import the Address Book mailing lists from Eudora in a very suitable manner.
Bookmarks and Favorites
Importing bookmarks is a simple task with the aid of the Windows utility Bookmark Converter 3 by Brading Software. Copy the bookmarks/favorites from the Macintosh machine. Bookmarks are stored in the following locations:
Application Bookmark Location Microsoft Internet Explorer Macintosh HD:System Folder:Preferences:Explorer:Favorites.html Netscape Macintosh HD:System Folder:Preferences:Netscape Users:profile-name:bookmarks.html Microsoft Internet Explorer ~/Library/Preferences/Explorer/Favorites.html Netscape ~/Library/Mozilla/Profiles/default/random-string/bookmarks.html Firefox ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/random-string/bookmarks.html Safari 1.x ~/Library/Safari/bookmarks.html Safari 2.x ~/Library/Safari/bookmarks.plist (See below) Safari 2.x stores its bookmarks in a plist instead of a standard html file. Fortunately, it is easy to export a Netscape-compatible file within Safari.
- Open Safari 2.x
- Choose File → Export Bookmarks…
- Save the file as bookmarks.html
If you are moving files from Internet Explorer, rename your backed up favorites.html to bookmarks.html. On the Windows machine, open Bookmark Converter. Select your backed up bookmarks.html as the source file, and export to the Favorites folder of the desired Windows username.
The bookmark source "Mozilla bookmarks" will work on Macintosh Firefox, Netscape, Safari, and Internet Explorer bookmark files.
Last Updated July 20, 2005
Nathan Haug