There is a maximum of experts who talked about the differences between Lotus Notes and Outlook application and most of them feel that the only reason behind conversion from IBM Notes to Outlook is the high cost of Lotus Notes email client. No doubt it can be the reason to move Lotus Notes email to Outlook application but there are also many reasons which we will discuss in this post and we can also find out the right solution of how to backup Lotus Notes database to Outlook without any single error. Let’s have a quick view of some causes that force to regulate the process of converting the Lotus Notes database to an Outlook email client.
Advantages of Microsoft Outlook Email Program
It was noticed that a 1/3rd population of Lotus Notes users convert their database to Outlook applications just because of the advantages of Outlook email clients. The following reasons for how to backup Lotus Notes database to Outlook are given below:
- Microsoft Outlook is an advanced application that gives the power to work in an offline mode.
- Offers the different facilities for managing the complete database.
- It includes more security features to safe the database in comparison to Lotus Notes.
- Outlook email client is most familiar to its users.
- And, this application is the easy to use by all users as compare to any other application.
- Outlook requires less maintenance cost, while on other side Lotus maintenance charges is too much high.
- Any user can simply share Outlook database from one to another.
- One of the best benefits of Outlook is this application famous for its multitasking feature.
How to Export NSF File to Outlook Using Manual Technique?
A complete free solution is available for users which can be performed using a step-by-step guide given.
Part 1- Export NSF Files to CSV Format
- At the starting point, download the Lotus Notes email client on your machine.
- Now, select the desired emails that you want to export to Outlook
- Go with the File button and click on Export. A click on the export button will show a dialog box.
After that type a name for the file and save it as using “Structured Text” type at a location accordingly. - Press on Export button fill in the information in the dialog box that appears and press the OK button.
When the exported data of Lotus Notes gets saved at the preferred location that you picked, save it to a format that MS Outlook recognizes. Microsoft Outlook doesn’t support the “Structured Text” format. A perfect format is CSV (Comma Separated Values). And, it can be done using an easy script (Microsoft recommended way). Once the Lotus Notes data has been converted to .csv format, you can directly proceed to convert it into an Outlook application.
Part 2- Import CSV File in Outlook
- Launch Microsoft Outlook, email client
- Now, go to File option >> Open >> Import. This action opens the Import and Export dialog box
- Click “Import from another program or file” and proceed to next.
- Select the file type CSV files for conversion
- Put the location of the exported NSF file and check to replace duplicates with items imported
- Now, choose a folder where you want to import the database and go with Next.
Pros
- Can perform Lotus Notes to Outlook conversion.
- Free solution for users to convert NSF files to PST.
Cons
- It does not give any guarantee to for successful conversion.
- Including so many lengthy steps and skip a single step can loss of the complete database.
- Not suited for large size of NSF files, sometimes it can be stopped during the process.
- Technical user can regulate the entire process but non-technical user can’t follow these difficult steps.
- Can remove encryption from NSF files
- Using this technique, you have to convert single file at a time. And, if you want to perform thousands NSF file to PST conversion so you have to follow the same steps thousands time.
- Need lot of time of user.
Conclusion
I hope now you get a little idea about the manual procedure that it is good for the conversion or not or is the solution to resolve the issue of how to backup Lotus Notes database to Outlook. As you can see above this free method is not good because it contains a lot of issues which never end. If still you want to go with this free solution then take a backup of the Lotus Notes database and after that follow the manual steps.
Still, if the technique fails then without taking any risk you should go with the expert’s choice that offers NSF to PST Converter software which never fails and provides lots of benefits along with conversion like- batch option for bulk NSF file conversion, free demo version to check the software before to purchase it.
So, now to end up with this post I want to say only that it’s totally up to you decision for choose any technique to convert your files.