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cr2crlf 1.0

(it's 115k)



2000apr11.

A Charmingly Benign "PC" Program To Convert Text Files With Lines Terminated With Just Carriage Returns To Text Files With Lines Terminated With The Carriage Return-Line Feed Buddy Combo Which Is Very Useful For People Moving From Eudora On The Mac To Eudora On The PC.


This is a utility that is comparable to the Mac version of the program that is called "crlf" except that it is not "drag-and-drop" and also it does not choke on large files and it's probably faster since you're moving from say, a very slow Mac to a very fast PC. That's where I get a 30% speed increase, right there, from moving to a different platform. I'm tricky that way. Anyway, one day I'll have a "screen shot" up here, but for now you'll just have to download the program and see what it's all about.

It will also work with entire directories.

Maybe someone's already written this program or computers now automatically magically convert everything like they should already and I just haven't upgraded to the newest version of the wonderful new operating system that finally actually works half the time.

Probably not.

Anyway, so you don't have to hunt down all that esoteric mumbo-jumbo just to use this program to convert Eudora files, here's an overview.

1) Move the files from the Mac to the PC. You'll just want to grab the files out of the Eudora mail folder that have the titles of your folders and no extension (don't worry about the ".toc" files). When you move these non-extension files over to the PC, chances are the filename is going to get all munged up because PCs are still based on DOS, a twenty-year old operating system. So change 'em - what I do is name them some suitable eight-character name with a ".hld" extension. You could use ".ass", it doesn't really matter. You could also put all of these files in one folder, say, "C:\windows\desktop\temp". That's what I use. Don't put them in any of the Eudora folders on the PC.

2) Now you're on the PC, and after you've rebooted a few times because it won't stop crashing, eventually the system will stabilize. Run the cr2crlf utility. It comes up with a default directory of "C:\windows\desktop\temp", but you can change that by converting one file and entering a new directory when prompted. You can also change the infile and outfile extensions -- but make sure the outfile extension is ".mbx" if you're dealing with Eudora files. cr2crlf will also add a "prefix character" to your filenames and keep them under eight characters if you leave the defaults alone - this is so all the files are grouped in one area, it makes the next step easier, and it prevents you from doing something stupid like overwriting your PC "in" file with your Mac "in" file.

3) Now the suck part. You have to start up your PC Eudora and make folders for all of these files you've moved over. Just make new folders with the same names as the ".mbx" files you just converted. They have to be the exact same or else it's not going to work.

4) After you've made all the folders, go in the PC Eudora folder and delete all of the new ".toc" files that were made for those files. Also, shut down Eudora.

5) Now the switch! No one will suspect that the actual diamond is a clever paste substitute! Move all of the ".mbx" files over to the Eudora folder - they will replace the zero-length files already sitting in that directory.

6) Start up Eudora again, and everything should be hunky, and/or dory.

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