OLexport for Windows

What is OLexport

The VBScript OLexport exports outlook contacts, calendar, tasks and notes into text files, that Apple software (iPod, iCal and Address book) can import. As standard formats (vCard and iCalendar) are used, this script may work for other applications as well.

It creates the following subdirectories in a directory of your choice:

• Contacts - for contact informations
• Calendars - for appointments and tasks
• Notes - for notes

For each category a separate file is created. So if you are interested in only some categories, you can ignore/delete the other ones.

OLexport ignores appointments and tasks, that are older than 3 months. By changing the "Const EXPORT_MONTH = 3" statement, this can be adapted to your needs.

Export to iPod

Be sure to "Enable disk use" for your iPod in iTunes preferences.

As OLexport uses the same directory structure as the iPod, you can just connect the iPod to your computer, start this macro, accept the iPod drive as the export directory, wait some few seconds and you're done.

This small (124 kB) flash video shows OLexport in action.

BUT !!!

I recommend that you first export to a temporary directory and manually copy the resulting files to the iPod. After you are familiar with this program and you are confident that it works correctly, you may directly export to the iPod.

Export to iCal and Address book

Have a look into the script source, there is a detailed description.

Outlook Security Warning

Outlook generates a security warning, when OLexport accesses certain informations (e.g. e-mail addresses). This is normal and can't be easily turned off. For more informations read this.

Bugs / Limitations / TODOs

• If your administrator has disabled VBScript, you're out of luck.
• Tested with Outlook 2002 and 2003 on Windows 2000 and XP
• Distribution lists not supported (they are ignored)
• iCal and iPod don't support recurring tasks (recurring appointments are supported)
• iPod doesn't support categories in contacts (they are ignored)
• No support for time zones
• Error handling left to the VBScript environment
• No support for Outlook Express (and no plans to support it :-)

Installation

Download OLexport_11.zip and extract the contents of the zip archive into any directory. Now double-click OLexport.vbs to start the script.

Version 0.9 and later use a new scheme for saving notes. To prevent double entries, users of pre-0.9 versions should manually delete the exported notes in iPod's "\Notes" directory before upgrading. The file "\Notes\.OL_Notes" should be deleted as well.

History

Version	Date Released	Notes
1.1	22.08.2006	Check for recurrence interval <= 0, crashes iPod
1.0	25.02.2006	Contacts in UTF-16 format Avoid illegal characters in filenames
0.9	16.02.2006	Detect iPod drive Put location into notice field Better notes export
0.8	05.11.2005	No need for extra help file Delete old export files
0.7	12.06.2005	Converted from VBA to VBScript
0.6	03.06.2005	Making it more robust: - Ignoring distribution lists - Categories are now case insensitive - Ignoring notes with empty subject
0.5	06.05.2005	Initial Version

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

The full GPL license text is avalable here.

The only exception is the part based on Jim Warrington's script. As Jim doesn't mention any license, I assume it's public domain. The GPL license doesn't apply to his part.

References

Without the load of information I found on the internet, this program would'nt be possible.

The most important:

• Outlook2vCal by Randy L. Pearson
• outlook2ical originally written by Norman L. Jones, now maintained by Mike Baas.
  Norman supports the SLPORE organisation. Please have a look at their web page and consider a donation.
• contactvcard.cpp by Justin Kirby, part of OutPort
• Generate Progress Bar Using Via Ie... by Jim Warrington