[thamcore]

WIndows XP
Outlook MS Office 2003

I use MSOutlook for my mail, putting all my email neatly in folders.
I started using Gmail and using IMAP I made sure that I had all my email on my computers harddisk, for the (many times) I want ot work on my emails without internet connection.

Now, GMail allows its users to store their mail not just in the could, but also on their own computer.

With that problem resolved I now would like to use GMail as my main email app.

Question: how can I import/convert the names of my many nested Outlook folders (without their content) into Gmail labels?

[Zri]

The following steps might be the solution to your problem:

Step 1: Enable IMAP in your Gmail account and then configure Outlook (or Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail) to sync with your Gmail address via IMAP.

Step 2: Import your Outlook PST file into a Personal folder that is different from your default Gmail Inbox.
To import, click File -> Import And Export -> Import from another program or file. -> Next -> Personal Folder File (.pst) -> Next.
Select the PST file that contains your email, then pick the email folders that you want to import in Outlook and click Finish.

Step 3: Select the Personal folders that you want to backup online and copy them your Gmail Folder in Outlook.
In the Folder List, right-click the folder you want to copy and click Copy Folder name. Click the Gmail Folder in Outlook to copy that folder in that location. You can repeat the steps as needed for other folders.

These steps should also import the folder names from Outlook into Gmail. Please reply with your results.

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email...t-backup/1938/

[thamcore]

To copy whole folders from outlook to gmail in IMAP is easy, I can just drag and drop in MSoutlook from the homefolder to the IMAP folder.

But, since all the hundreds of emails are already in my Gmail too, moving all the folders to IMAP would duplicate all those emails in my GMAIL.

From there my question if it is possible to just convert only all the names of the outlook folders (without their content) in to labels for Gmail

[thamcore]

The solution of Zri did not work, but it inspired me to find the real and easy solution myself.

The trick is to delete ALL emails in a very simple way!

First, if you didn't do this yet, make an IMAP link between your outlook and your gmailaccount. Go to settings/forwarding POPIMAP/
check enable IMAP. (llok at the instructions, it is really easy, even for a not very experienced user)

Then:

1. make a copy of your outlook.pst file in a different folder and give it a different name eg copyoutlook.pst
2. in MSoutlook open that copy ( I am translating from my Dutch version of MSOutlook): file/open/outlook file/ browse to copyoutlook.pst
3. click on that folder in Outlook (now you have a copy of your homefolder with all its content)

4. with that folder highlighted, go to extra/search/seachcriteria (or Control/shift/F)
5. choose "often used text fields" and looking for a space (in "the looking for" field you just type a single space. The idea is that every single email will at least have one space in it, so that ALL YOUR EMAILS are selected.
6. once the search stopped, you have now a very long list with all your emails.
7. delete them all. NB before doing this empty your deleted folder completely if you have lots of emails to delete.
8 result: nothing but empty folders in your outlook copy.

9. have a critical look at your folders. If you have folders nested in different levels, simplify this. YOu can have nested folders, but more than two levels becomes difficult to use in Gmail.

10. drag these empty folders to your IMPAP folder. Just in the imap.gmail.folder, not in the [Gmail] folder. If you drop it in [Gmail] all your labels will begin with "Gmail", which is useless, creates longer label names and a supplementary nesting.

Go to your Gmail and presto... all your foldernames became Gmail labels.