If you're a fan of Outlook's Notes feature, don't worry. You can use ThunderNote by Michael Chiviendacz. You can install just like we did with the Lightning add-on. Then in Thunderbird you can access it by clicking Tools > ThunderNote. You'll probably find it much easier to add a button to the Mode Toolbar, in the lower left corner of Thunderbird. You can do this from the ThunderNote settings dialog.

To export your notes from Outlook, click File > Import and Export. On the wizard dialog, choose Export to a File, select the Comma Separated Values (DOS) format, select the Notes folder, and then choose where to output the CVS file. Now you can move to the Thunderbird machine to import the notes. Open ThunderNote, click Sync, check the Outlook Compatibility Mode option, click the Import button, and open the CVS file. You're done; your memos-to-self should now appear in ThunderNote.

Creating automatic signatures in Thunderbird

As you may know, signatures (your closing, name, contact info, etc) can be automatically included in messages you compose in email clients. If you are used to Outlook, it may take awhile to find the signature settings in Thunderbird. Instead of the general options, signatures are defined in the Account Settings of Thunderbird, along with the email server details.

If you want to, you can even export your Outlook signature(s) and import them into Thunderbird. In Outlook, click Tools > Options, select the Mail Format tab, and click the Signatures button. You can copy and paste the signatures in a plain text editor, such as Notepad, or HTML editor, such as Frontpage, and save them. Then move the file(s) over to the Thunderbird machine. Click Edit > Account Settings and select the desired (bolded) account. Then check the Attach this signature option, click Choose, and select the signature text or HTML file you produced in Windows.

Migration complete!

We did it! We got rid of Outlook and moved to a open source email client, the good 'ol Thunderbird. In Part 1, we copied over the server settings, transferred our mail over, and migrated the contact information. In this part, we installed a calendar, task manager, and note features, plus loaded them with our existing Outlook data. Then we figured out how to set up auto signatures.

Eric Geier is an author of many computing and networking books, including Home Networking All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (Wiley 2008) and 100 Things You Need to Know about Microsoft Windows Vista (Que 2007).

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