If you’re using Mac OSX 10.4, it is very easy to convert a word file to an Adobe PDF. In fact, there is a nice tutorial about it here.

To create a PDF file under application:

1. Choose File -> Print.
2. Click on the PDF button in the bottom left of the ìPrintî Screen.
3. Select the option to best save your PDF file

If that doesn’t work for you, try this workaround in this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2083120

Or, try hitting yoru f8 key and waiting. Sometimes that will “kick” the application to make it work as stated in this message:

“I almost thought that 10.4.6 was going to be the end of ViaVoice X (IBM), but I have a workaround. I use it with the ViaVoice medical dictionary for transcription. Since the update, it claims that the microphone is in use by another application, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what application. However, by using the F8 key to turn the mic on and off, after a few toggles the mic will work and I can ‘dictate’ once again. Also, the VoiceCenter interface remains greyed out no matter if selected or not, so the only way I can quit ViaVoice is to either log out or quit via the Activity monitor. However, I can still use this product that hasn’t been updated in years.”

Well, after digging around and *not* finding this in the Mac help files, I googled around and found you can indeed have multiple from: addresses using Mac Mail. Here’s how:

To set up multiple addresses for one account in Mac OS X Mail:

• Select Mail | Preferences… from the menu in Mac OS X Mail.
• Go to the Accounts category.
• Highlight the desired account.
• Enter all email addresses you want to use with this account in the Email Address: field. Be sure to separate the addresses by commas: me@yadda.com, nick@website.com.

After you have closed the configuration dialog and saved the new settings you can send mail from all these email addresses. You’ll notice a drop down box at the top of each new mail message which will allow you to choose which From: address you’d like to use for that message.

My Eudora mail was moved over to my Mini without much incidence. However, Eudora 6.2.3 refused to score my mail for junk. I went back and forth with tech support trying everything from changing some preferences to a complete reinstall, but could not get the issue resolved. Finally, I called Eudora’s customer service department to get a refund. I was sad because when Eudora does work, it is extremely powerful and easy to use. And, Eudora’s tech support department was wonderful to work with. When they said they’d call back, they actually did. Same day. And I wasn’t talking to someone in India. Even better. Eudora handed my issue over to their programers to try to figure out why the junk scorer wasn’t working. In the meantime, however, I have changed everything over to Apple Mail.

I decided to use Apple Mail because it was already installed on my Mac, and because I really hate using Thunderbird. While Thunderbird is a powerful program, I am always finding something with it I can’t do. Like auto replies. Also, I think the menuing system on Thunderbird was put together by someone with schizophrenia; I am always *always* hunting the menus to find things. Thunderbird was simply a frustrating experience for me.

The one disadvantage to Apple Mail is there is not a built in wizard to import Eudora mail over to Apple Mail. So I hunted around and found an easy to use and FREE application called Eudora Mailbox Cleaner. Eudora Mailbox Cleaner is a simple drag’n'drop application which provides easy one-step migration from Eudora to other mail clients, importing Eudora’s mailboxes, filters, and nickname files. It made moving to Apple Mail a breeze, and I honestly think that every Mac should come with this nifty little application as part of Mac OS. It imported my mail into Apple Mail and all of my addresses into my Mac Address Book. Without Eudora Mailbox Cleaner, there’d be no way I could have moved my mail over to Apple Mail. Eudora just doesn’t play nicely with other applications.

So far, I love Apple Mail. Its spam filtering is excellent, and the menu system is simple and intuitive. It even has the Eudora “personalities” feature built in: if you have several different mail accounts, the “from” is automatically sent with whatever email address that is associated with that account. This is handy when you have several different web sites and want the email address to sync with the web site’s domain name. Honestly, I think I will be hard pressed to move back to Eudora. Even if their tech department is in the US.

So, I’ll tell you what worked for me after fighting it for 5 hours.

First, I upgraded my old G3’s Eudora to the newest version which is Eudora 6.1.1. Next, close out of Eudora — this is very important otherwise you will crash — and grab your data files stored in my “Eudora Folder” which is found in your Documents Folder or sometimes your System folder.

(NOTE: There are two folders, the “Eudora Folder” and the “Eudora Application Folder”. You want to move the “Eudora Folder” only. It is either found in your “Documents” folder or your “System” folder. The Eudora Folder keeps your data files – while the Eudora Application Folder stores the program itself.)

Now, this is the key important point: use Stuffit to compress your files before you move them or back them up. Otherwise you will get broken resource forks and you’ll keep getting the “Not a properly formatted mailbox” error.

Download and install Eudora on your new Mac.

Put your stuffed data file on your new Mac’s Desktop and allow it to decompress. Then, place it in your user specific Documents folder and away you go. (You may need to rename the Eudora folder that Eudora *just* installed in your User specific Documents folder and replace with your data filled one you just unstuffed on your desktop.

The key point here is that you *have* to use Stuffit to compress your data if you move your data folder from a Mac to a non Mac. Because I ftp’ed my data folder to a server as a ‘middleman’ to move data from one point to another, the resource forks got all messed up in the transfer to a “non Mac” environment. Hopefully this will save someone else the trouble I had.