definition of outlook 98 compressed format

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Schatt
  • Start date Start date
J

Jack Schatt

I have a few hundred e-mails which all have attachments, and I would like
to decompress them and put their contents into one concatenated file so I
can do some statistical research on them. If I can find out what the binary
format is, I can write a C program to do the concatenation and the stats.

Thanks,
Jack
 
You seem not to understand anything about PST files.
Clarify in what format your data is now stored.
 
You're right, I don't understand anything about PST files other than that
is where Outlook stores its messages. But it could be worse and there are
many other things I don't understand. But for brevity, I have a folder in
Outlook 98 containing a subset of my mail. These messages all contain
attachments. I can open each one and save the attachment to a Windows XP
folder. When the attachments are saved, they appear with a .msg extension.
If I convert the files to a .txt extension and open them, I see
intelligible pieces of the original attachment, but a bunch of other
non-ascii stuff too. I'd like to be able to convert the attachment to an
ascii format which I can then read with a C program.

I need the format definition of the .msg files. I don't know if that is
equivalent to asking the format definition for a .pst file.

What format (field definitions etc.) are these in?

Thanks for the quick response,
Jack

You seem not to understand anything about PST files.
Clarify in what format your data is now stored.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jack Schatt said:
I have a few hundred e-mails which all have attachments, and I would like
to decompress them and put their contents into one concatenated file so I
can do some statistical research on them. If I can find out what the
binary
format is, I can write a C program to do the concatenation and the stats.

Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
So what is your question?
How to change an attachment from its native format to ascii?
What does that have to do with Outlook? Whether that is even possible would
have to do with what type of attachment it is and what program is associated
with it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jack Schatt said:
You're right, I don't understand anything about PST files other than that
is where Outlook stores its messages. But it could be worse and there are
many other things I don't understand. But for brevity, I have a folder in
Outlook 98 containing a subset of my mail. These messages all contain
attachments. I can open each one and save the attachment to a Windows XP
folder. When the attachments are saved, they appear with a .msg extension.
If I convert the files to a .txt extension and open them, I see
intelligible pieces of the original attachment, but a bunch of other
non-ascii stuff too. I'd like to be able to convert the attachment to an
ascii format which I can then read with a C program.

I need the format definition of the .msg files. I don't know if that is
equivalent to asking the format definition for a .pst file.

What format (field definitions etc.) are these in?

Thanks for the quick response,
Jack

You seem not to understand anything about PST files.
Clarify in what format your data is now stored.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jack Schatt said:
I have a few hundred e-mails which all have attachments, and I would like
to decompress them and put their contents into one concatenated file so
I
can do some statistical research on them. If I can find out what the
binary
format is, I can write a C program to do the concatenation and the
stats.

Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
So what is your question?
Click to expand...

Friend, I've asked it the only way I can. What format (field definitions
etc.) are these in?
How to change an attachment from its native format to ascii?
Click to expand...

That would do. I don't need to change it to ascii......if I know where the
data is, I can change it to whatever form I need to do my analysis. I want
to access the attachment (wherever it is....if it isn't in a .pst file,
then where would it be?).
What does that have to do with Outlook? Whether that is even possible would
have to do with what type of attachment it is and what program is associated
with it.
Click to expand...

The attachments e-mails which have been forwarded to me. These are
forwarded SMTP e-mails which I'm receiving into my inbox with *Outlook*.
Therefore, my assumption is that it has something to do with *Outlook.*

As an example, these e-mails I received with *Outlook* into my inbox read:

Note: forwarded message attached.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------

I can double click on the attachment icon, and visually read the
attachment. These are simply text attachments. When they open, they appear
just as any other Outlook e-mail, showing the From, To, CC and BCC lines
from the SMTP/POP3 header fields. Are these attachments stored in the
Outlook.pst file? If not, enlighten me. If you don't know, then say so.

There must be a way. This is a computer. It executes instructions. I have
a PhD in EE and CS and have been designing computers and writing software
for the last 30 years. If I can find out where the files are and their
format, I can write a program to read them.

Does this make sense?

Regards,
Jack
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jack Schatt said:
You're right, I don't understand anything about PST files other than that
is where Outlook stores its messages. But it could be worse and there are
many other things I don't understand. But for brevity, I have a folder in
Outlook 98 containing a subset of my mail. These messages all contain
attachments. I can open each one and save the attachment to a Windows XP
folder. When the attachments are saved, they appear with a .msg extension.
If I convert the files to a .txt extension and open them, I see
intelligible pieces of the original attachment, but a bunch of other
non-ascii stuff too. I'd like to be able to convert the attachment to an
ascii format which I can then read with a C program.

I need the format definition of the .msg files. I don't know if that is
equivalent to asking the format definition for a .pst file.

What format (field definitions etc.) are these in?

Thanks for the quick response,
Jack

You seem not to understand anything about PST files.
Clarify in what format your data is now stored.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I have a few hundred e-mails which all have attachments, and I would like
to decompress them and put their contents into one concatenated file so
I
can do some statistical research on them. If I can find out what the
binary
format is, I can write a C program to do the concatenation and the
stats.

Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
AFAIK there is only one program that can read PST files.
Outlook.
These are proprietary files the features of which are undocumented.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jack Schatt said:
So what is your question?
Click to expand...

Friend, I've asked it the only way I can. What format (field definitions
etc.) are these in?
How to change an attachment from its native format to ascii?
Click to expand...

That would do. I don't need to change it to ascii......if I know where the
data is, I can change it to whatever form I need to do my analysis. I
want
to access the attachment (wherever it is....if it isn't in a .pst file,
then where would it be?).
What does that have to do with Outlook? Whether that is even possible
would
have to do with what type of attachment it is and what program is
associated
with it.
Click to expand...

The attachments e-mails which have been forwarded to me. These are
forwarded SMTP e-mails which I'm receiving into my inbox with *Outlook*.
Therefore, my assumption is that it has something to do with *Outlook.*

As an example, these e-mails I received with *Outlook* into my inbox read:

Note: forwarded message attached.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------

I can double click on the attachment icon, and visually read the
attachment. These are simply text attachments. When they open, they
appear
just as any other Outlook e-mail, showing the From, To, CC and BCC lines
from the SMTP/POP3 header fields. Are these attachments stored in the
Outlook.pst file? If not, enlighten me. If you don't know, then say so.

There must be a way. This is a computer. It executes instructions. I have
a PhD in EE and CS and have been designing computers and writing software
for the last 30 years. If I can find out where the files are and their
format, I can write a program to read them.

Does this make sense?

Regards,
Jack
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Jack Schatt said:
You're right, I don't understand anything about PST files other than
that
is where Outlook stores its messages. But it could be worse and there
are
many other things I don't understand. But for brevity, I have a folder
in
Outlook 98 containing a subset of my mail. These messages all contain
attachments. I can open each one and save the attachment to a Windows XP
folder. When the attachments are saved, they appear with a .msg
extension.
If I convert the files to a .txt extension and open them, I see
intelligible pieces of the original attachment, but a bunch of other
non-ascii stuff too. I'd like to be able to convert the attachment to an
ascii format which I can then read with a C program.

I need the format definition of the .msg files. I don't know if that is
equivalent to asking the format definition for a .pst file.

What format (field definitions etc.) are these in?

Thanks for the quick response,
Jack


You seem not to understand anything about PST files.
Clarify in what format your data is now stored.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I have a few hundred e-mails which all have attachments, and I would
like
to decompress them and put their contents into one concatenated file
so
I
can do some statistical research on them. If I can find out what the
binary
format is, I can write a C program to do the concatenation and the
stats.

Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
MSG Files:

Priasoft has several MSG related products. http://www.priasoft.com

In particular, they have a MSG file parsing library that gives
developers access to all the properties of a .msg file, without
outlook.

They also have an export library that works with the MSG library for
exporting msg files to other formats, like PDF, TIF, and HTML.

For PST files, they have a couple of command line tools that allow
extraction of messages to MSG, again without requiring outlook, and it
supports both ANSI and UNICODE pst files. There is also the reverse, a
MSG to PST utility.

They also have a viewer product that looks very similar to outlook 2003
with regards to the User Interface. The viewer can view, search, print,
and export msg files.

Lastly, they just release a free ViewOnly viewer here:
http://www.priasoft.com/msgview.exe


Regards,
the MSG Guru, Eriq VanBibber
 
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