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Outpod is a program to do bulk exports of contact and calendar information from Microsoft Outlook to files according to the vCard and vCalendar standard.

The iPod and Windows

In October 2001 Apple released an MP3-player, which makes all past devices look pale by comparison. The iPod uses a hard disk with a storage capacity of 5GB where you can store approx. 1000 songs. The integrated lithium polymer battery allows up to 10 hours of play time. The Firewire interface allows a complete CD to be transferred in only a few minutes.

The equipment had only one flaw: It only functioned together with Apple computers. In the meantime there were software solutions which made it possible for the iPod to load music from a Windows PC. I use XPlay from Mediafour. There are other solutions e.g. EphPod and since 17 July 2002 Apple offers two new iPod models, which already co-operate on their part with Windows.

Since version 1.1 of the iPod software the iPod can also store contacts in vCard format. Thus one can export contacts from programs such as PalmDesktop, Outlook, etc. on the iPod itself. Version 1.2 of the iPod firmware added the capability to store appointments in vCalendar or iCalendar format.

The Outlook Problem

In generalOutlook supports the vCard and vCalendar format. Unfortunately a function to store more than one contact at a time as a vCard is missing from Outlook. This is the same for appointments.

When I recognized this I was rather surprised. Probably Microsoft forgot this function or they didn't see any importance in this, or simply I didn't find it.

Solution

On a rainy weekend I started to write my own little program to provide this missing functionality. The initial version was done in only two days. The success has been overwhelming. Outpod has been downloaded more than 3000 times. Since the initial release I got lots of emails with suggestions about additional features and enhancements. Thanks to everyone who wrote me. I can't answer any email I get, but be assured I read them all.

Instructions

Installation
Installation is very easy. Just download the version you want, and unzip the file to a directory on your PC. The name of the executable is Outpod.exe.

Start
On startup Outpod connects to Outlook and reads the top-level folder information. Every time you expand a node in the folder-tree the subfolders are read from Outlook. When you select a folder, that contains contacts or appointments, the information is displayed in the list view on the right side of the screen.

Export data
To export the informations from Outlook, you first need to select the items you want to be saved. If you want to store the items in one single file, select the menu item Outpod->Save selected items to single file. In this case Outpod asks you for the name and location of the file. If you select the menu item Outpod->Save selected items, Outpod asks you for the location of the target directory and creates one file per item in this directory.

Calendar information
With Apples iCal you can organize your appointments in different calenders and export or publish them separately. The iPod supports this as well. Every calender is displayed on an iPod as an entry in the menu Extras->Calendars. Outpod supports this in a very sophisticated manner. Outpods behaviour is set using the options dialog. You can see this dialog by selecting Extras->Options.

If you activate the checkmark Save calendar info, calendar information is stored with the appointments. If this is deactivated Outpod behaves like version 0.3. You can choose between using the calendar names or the categories to specify the iPod-calendar of your appointments. If you choose Use category info and activate One appointment for every category, then every appointment that belongs to more than one category is stored once for every category it belongs to. E.g. you have an appointment that belongs to the categories Personal and Car, the target file will contain two copies of this appointment. One with calendar set to Personal, the other with calendar set to Car.

In case of errors
If you encounter an error or a problem during your work with Outpod, please restart Outpod with the commandline option -debug. Reproduce all your steps to get the error. Then look in the Outpod directory for the file Outpod.csl. Send this file to outpod@stoer.de.

Download

Download Outpod Version 0.4
Download Outpod Version 0.3
Download Outpod Version 0.2.1
Download Outpod Version 0.2
Download Outpod Version 0.1

©2002 by Oliver Stör
Last change: 13.10.2002