A question came up today if it was possible to export a Calendar in Microsoft Outlook and import it to Mozilla Lightning. Mozilla Lightning can be integrated in the email client Thunderbird. There are basically two ways to import the Microsoft Outlook Calendar into Mozilla Lightning.
The manual way would be to export the Calendar files from Microsoft Outlook as comma separated values (csv) and import them into Mozilla Lightning. To do that open Microsoft Outlook and select File > Import and Export from the top menu.
The Import and Export Wizard will show up offering choices to import data into Microsoft Outlook and export data into files as well. Pick the Export To A File entry from the selection.
The Export To A File menu shows up which offers to export data into various file types. Select the Comma Separated Values (Windows) entry from the available choices.
After making that selection it is time to select the data that should be exported. Pick the Calendar entry from the available data sources.
Select a file name for the calendar export, pick the data range that you want to export and save it to the computer’s hard drive. Now that the exported data is available it is time to import it into Mozilla Lightning.
Make sure that the Mozilla Lightning extension for the email client Thunderbird has already been installed. Start Mozilla Thunderbird afterwards and click on the Calendar button in the lower left corner of the application’s window. It is possible to use the shortcut [CTRL 3] to go to the calendar as well.
Lightning supports Calendar imports from csv and ics files. Pick the csv filter in the file browser and navigate to the hard drive folder that contains the Microsoft Outlook Calendar export. A click on that file will load the calendar in Mozilla Lightning and make the calendar available there.
The Open Source tool Outpost provides an elegant alternative. It has not been updated in the last years but is still able to export Outlook data. It can be used to export Outlook Calendar data in an ics file which can then be imported into Mozilla Lightning or any other application that supports the format.
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How about a completely automated option? It allows for bi-directional syncing.
“Provider For Google Calendar” in Thunderbird:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4631
and
“Google Calendar Sync” with Outlook:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=98563&topic=13948
I provided the wrong link for the Thunderbird add-on in my previous submission.
Using Google Calendar as a go-between like that is great, except it doesn’t support task lists. I use tasks far more than the calendar.
Can anyone suggest an automated way to automatically bi-directionally sync tasks between Outlook and Lightning?
Thanks for the article- I really like the step-by-step instructions- but this doesn’t work for me at all. I’ve tried importing a .csv file manually, and it doesn’t show at all. If hanyone has any tips for me, I’m using Vista, Thunderbird 2.0.0.23, and Lightning 0.9.
Try to use FreeMiCal. For me worked great.
The cvs transfer method worked great! Thanks so much.
Method didn#t work for me either. Export seemed to go ok but import has an exclamation mark and no appointments show up. Sadly, easy tho freemical looks, it fails for me 3/4 of the way through.
This seemingly simple process is becoming a complete pain in the arse.
FreeMiCal works great for me on Windows XP SP3, Office 2007 SP2, and Thunderbird 3.1.9. I’m impressed that it still works, it hasn’t had a new version released since 2007. I haven’t tested repeating events thoroughly though (I know that is always problematic), and the user’s calendar on which I tested it was not that complicated.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freemical/
Thank you for this post!