Move from OL98 to OL2003

[Johannes Czernin]

I'm planning to progress from an old computer running Win98 and OL98 to a
new machine with WinXP and OL2003. During the past weeks I have been
intensively follwing discussions in the various Outlook forums and
Newsgroups in order to gather as much information as possible.

I think I'm now fairly sure about the main steps to follow. However, one
item I am particularly keen to handle properly is associations of Journal
entries to Contacts. I think I have learned from mistakes I did in the past
when I had inadvertently moved contacts to another folder which caused the
associations to get broken.

I have studied one of the Web pages most frequently referred to here, i.e.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ansi-to-unicode.asp

and I would now like to be advised as to which of the three methods
mentioned I should apply. I may add that on the old machine I have been
archiving everything into individual yearly PST files, with the sole
exception that all journal items have been retained in the current active
file. This is necessary for me as my work requires me to be able to see the
complete list of all journal entries for each contact, even if the item a
journal entry is referring to would have to be looked up in an archive file
instead of the current PST file.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Hi Johannes,

Hope you're well. This is a tough question. Let me ask for some
clarification. For the most part, Journaling has been replaced by the
"Activities" feature in later versions of Outlook. How were you using
Journaling? Were you using it to track only Outlook Items or Office
documents as well? Shall we assume you want to migrate to the new UNICODE
format for Outlook data? If so, will you still use or need access to your
current archive folders or are you planning to move them all into a single
UNICODE PST file? Finally, what method have you been using that permits
Journaling to pull entries from your archive files and how well do you find
that is working?

 

[Johannes Czernin]

Hi, Russ,

Yes, everything is OK over here on this side of the Big Herring Pond. Great
you jumped in with an attempt to help me. My planned transition to a new
machine is still a few months away but once I start things I want them to be
done quick.

The reason the new machine will be installed with WinXP-Pro and Office
2003-Pro instead of the latest versions of Vista and Office 2007 is A) I
have no desire to risk going into Vista right now, and B) I have an unused
set of complete versions of these two packages at hand. The money saved by
not having to buy new software, particularly the Office package (???? !!!)
will be much better spent in the new hardware I'm going to buy.

Now to your questions:

A number of my contacts are set to create Journal entries automatically for
E-mails received and sent and for phone calls initiated directly from
Outlook. Additionally some more entries are also created manually whenever
thought necessary. Office documents are included amongst these, normally
having been created by drag-and-drop within Outlook, but of course these
could just as well be created manually.

Currently a normal archiving process is run every few days, and at the end
of each year a discrete archive file is created for the year that has just
ended. The entire content of the current PST file is regularly archived,
with the exception of Contacts and Journal.

In the current PST file each contact thus will display the entire list of
journal entries, in some case from a fair number of years back. The
individual items those old Journal entries refer to are of course stored in
their respective yearly archive files. The important thing for me here is to
be able to see at a single glance things like "... this-or-that-received at
this-or-that date..." or "... this-or-that-discussed with this-or-that
contact at this-or-that date..." The need to actually review any of these
items does not arise too frequently, so when it does it is not too much
trouble for me to open the particular yearly archive and look it up.

On the new machine of course I'd like to run UNICODE code PST files. I
understand my old ANSI PST files will continue to be readable by the system,
but I would not mind having them converted from ANSI to UNICODE format as
the old machine will be retired for good as soon as the new one is running
properly with all material transferred to it.

So the crux of my problem burns down to the question of how to proceed so
that the associations between Journal entries and their respective Contacts
will remain intact - in other words all I want to have is to continue to be
able to see the list of Journal entries on the respective tab page of each
individual contact, plus the entire sortable list in the Journal folder
itself.

I hope this will clear things up a little bit but please do not hesitate to
ask back for forther information if necessary.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help,

Kind regards,

Johannes

Hi Johannes,

Hope you're well. This is a tough question. Let me ask for some
clarification. For the most part, Journaling has been replaced by the
"Activities" feature in later versions of Outlook. How were you using
Journaling? Were you using it to track only Outlook Items or Office
documents as well? Shall we assume you want to migrate to the new UNICODE
format for Outlook data? If so, will you still use or need access to your
current archive folders or are you planning to move them all into a single
UNICODE PST file? Finally, what method have you been using that permits
Journaling to pull entries from your archive files and how well do you find
that is working?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I'm planning to progress from an old computer running Win98 and OL98 to a
new machine with WinXP and OL2003. During the past weeks I have been
intensively follwing discussions in the various Outlook forums and
Newsgroups in order to gather as much information as possible.

I think I'm now fairly sure about the main steps to follow. However, one
item I am particularly keen to handle properly is associations of Journal
entries to Contacts. I think I have learned from mistakes I did in the
past
when I had inadvertently moved contacts to another folder which caused the
associations to get broken.

I have studied one of the Web pages most frequently referred to here, i.e.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ansi-to-unicode.asp

and I would now like to be advised as to which of the three methods
mentioned I should apply. I may add that on the old machine I have been
archiving everything into individual yearly PST files, with the sole
exception that all journal items have been retained in the current active
file. This is necessary for me as my work requires me to be able to see
the
complete list of all journal entries for each contact, even if the item a
journal entry is referring to would have to be looked up in an archive
file
instead of the current PST file.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I would feel safest with Method 2, then. If you have found that all your
Journal entries remain intact even when the items to which they refer are
moved to an archive folder, then method 3 should work as well, but Method 2
leaves less to chance. For sure, you don't want to go anywhere near Method
1. Importing is notorious for breaking the links you want to preserve.

The safest method of all for data transfer is simply to open your old PST
file in the new installation and keep using it as your default, but that
would preclude your migrating to UNICODE.

I agree with you about both Office 2007 and Vista. I wouldn't run either on
a production partition yet. But then I'm always more careful than I probably
need to be.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hi, Russ,

Yes, everything is OK over here on this side of the Big Herring Pond.
Great
you jumped in with an attempt to help me. My planned transition to a new
machine is still a few months away but once I start things I want them to
be
done quick.

The reason the new machine will be installed with WinXP-Pro and Office
2003-Pro instead of the latest versions of Vista and Office 2007 is A) I
have no desire to risk going into Vista right now, and B) I have an unused
set of complete versions of these two packages at hand. The money saved by
not having to buy new software, particularly the Office package (???? !!!)
will be much better spent in the new hardware I'm going to buy.

Now to your questions:

A number of my contacts are set to create Journal entries automatically
for
E-mails received and sent and for phone calls initiated directly from
Outlook. Additionally some more entries are also created manually whenever
thought necessary. Office documents are included amongst these, normally
having been created by drag-and-drop within Outlook, but of course these
could just as well be created manually.

Currently a normal archiving process is run every few days, and at the end
of each year a discrete archive file is created for the year that has just
ended. The entire content of the current PST file is regularly archived,
with the exception of Contacts and Journal.

In the current PST file each contact thus will display the entire list of
journal entries, in some case from a fair number of years back. The
individual items those old Journal entries refer to are of course stored
in
their respective yearly archive files. The important thing for me here is
to
be able to see at a single glance things like "... this-or-that-received
at
this-or-that date..." or "... this-or-that-discussed with this-or-that
contact at this-or-that date..." The need to actually review any of these
items does not arise too frequently, so when it does it is not too much
trouble for me to open the particular yearly archive and look it up.

On the new machine of course I'd like to run UNICODE code PST files. I
understand my old ANSI PST files will continue to be readable by the
system,
but I would not mind having them converted from ANSI to UNICODE format as
the old machine will be retired for good as soon as the new one is running
properly with all material transferred to it.

So the crux of my problem burns down to the question of how to proceed so
that the associations between Journal entries and their respective
Contacts
will remain intact - in other words all I want to have is to continue to
be
able to see the list of Journal entries on the respective tab page of each
individual contact, plus the entire sortable list in the Journal folder
itself.

I hope this will clear things up a little bit but please do not hesitate
to
ask back for forther information if necessary.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help,

Kind regards,

Johannes

Hi Johannes,

Hope you're well. This is a tough question. Let me ask for some
clarification. For the most part, Journaling has been replaced by the
"Activities" feature in later versions of Outlook. How were you using
Journaling? Were you using it to track only Outlook Items or Office
documents as well? Shall we assume you want to migrate to the new UNICODE
format for Outlook data? If so, will you still use or need access to your
current archive folders or are you planning to move them all into a
single
UNICODE PST file? Finally, what method have you been using that permits
Journaling to pull entries from your archive files and how well do you find
that is working?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I'm planning to progress from an old computer running Win98 and OL98 to a
new machine with WinXP and OL2003. During the past weeks I have been
intensively follwing discussions in the various Outlook forums and
Newsgroups in order to gather as much information as possible.

I think I'm now fairly sure about the main steps to follow. However,
one
item I am particularly keen to handle properly is associations of Journal
entries to Contacts. I think I have learned from mistakes I did in the
past
when I had inadvertently moved contacts to another folder which caused the
associations to get broken.

I have studied one of the Web pages most frequently referred to here, i.e.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ansi-to-unicode.asp

and I would now like to be advised as to which of the three methods
mentioned I should apply. I may add that on the old machine I have been
archiving everything into individual yearly PST files, with the sole
exception that all journal items have been retained in the current active
file. This is necessary for me as my work requires me to be able to see
the
complete list of all journal entries for each contact, even if the item a
journal entry is referring to would have to be looked up in an archive
file
instead of the current PST file.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Johannes Czernin]

Hi, Russ,

Gee, that really is a good, great, detailed, precise and - may I dare to say
that to someone in your profession? - clean cut reply! Thanks a lot
for it!

Whatever I will do I'll definitely keep copies of my original files before I
start doing an silly. I think I'll try both methods 2 & 3 as I would of
course very much like to work on Unicode files with the new programs.

I'm also really happy about your remarks on Vista and Office 2007. The two
of us seem to be the perfect team for starting the World Wide
Let's-Scrap-MS's-Latest- Junk Campaign!

I'll definitely report results as soon as I get that new machine.

Thanks again and kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Brian Tillman]

Gee, that really is a good, great, detailed, precise and - may I dare
to say that to someone in your profession? - clean cut reply!
Thanks a lot for it!

LOL!

 

[Johannes Czernin]

Gee - one more who's in the know!

Regards,

Johannes

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm crushed Now if I were an attorney, I would have expected and deserved
that response.

 

[Johannes Czernin]

No, please, no!

You rate absolutely top in my scale of OL experts and I am absolutely sure
you'd qualify equally had I ever had the opportunity to consult you in your
other job!



Best wishes,

Johannes

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You should be safe. Austrians are much healthier than Americans.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

No, please, no!

You rate absolutely top in my scale of OL experts and I am absolutely sure
you'd qualify equally had I ever had the opportunity to consult you in
your
other job!



Best wishes,

Johannes