What's wrong with this procedure - answers

In this file, I gave an example of a procedure with problems and invited you to decide what the problems were and now to fix them. Here is my analysis.

Problems with the procedure as written

The introductory paragraph says the procedure describes how to set up a newly migrated account from three e-mail programs, but the procedure itself does not say what to do if the account is from Outlook Express.

Step 5 tells the reader to go to step 8; the correct step number in the existing procedure is 9.

Step 8 is out of order; it needs to be done before step 7.

In several steps, it's unclear to inexperienced users whether they are supposed to do the step in Eudora or in the other e-mail program.

Several steps contain unnecessary technical detail or wording, such as "drop-down context menu" or the meaning of LDIF.

One solution: the rewritten procedure

[Editor's note: I don't claim this is the best rewording of this material; my priority was to make it unambiguous. You are welcome to send your suggested improvements to me.]

Importing Settings to Create a New Account

You can import your account settings, e-mail, and address book from an existing Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook Express, or Microsoft Outlook account to an account in Eudora at the time you create the new account in Eudora. You cannot import settings, e-mail, or an address book into an existing Eudora account.

Note to Netscape users: Before you can import your Netscape Address Book, you must first save it as an LDIF file. To do this, see Saving your Netscape address book in an LDIF file>.

To create a new account and import settings, do the following:

1. If the Personalities window is not visible, display it. (From the Tools menu, choose Personalities.)
    
2. In the Personalities window, right-click to display a pop-up menu. Click New. The first New Account Wizard window, Account Settings, is displayed.
    
3. Select Import Settings from an Existing E-mail Account and click Next. The next New Account Wizard window, Personality Name, is displayed.
    
4. In the Personality Name text box, you can change the suggested personality name if you wish. Click Next and the next New Account Wizard window, Import Settings, is displayed.
    
5. To specify what you want to import:
   1. From the list shown in the box, select the program from which you wish to import.
       
   2. If you are importing from Microsoft Outlook 98 or Microsoft Outlook Express, select one or both of the checkboxes, Import Mail and Import Address Book Entries.
       
      If you are importing from Netscape, select the Netscape Navigator button. The choices on the Import Settings window change to those for Netscape. Select one or both of the checkboxes, Import Mail and Import Address Book from LDIF File.
6. Click Next. If you are importing a Netscape Address Book, you will be prompted to locate and select the LDIF file you created earlier.
    
   Eudora migrates your account by transferring all settings including personalities, incoming and outgoing server names, real name, return name, and login name.

Note: If during the migration, the process stops because of a corrupt message, you must

1. Open the program from which you are importing (Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express) and delete the corrupt message.
    
2. Return to the Eudora error message and click Resume to continue the migration.

When the migration has completed successfully, the Success window appears. The settings you have imported are effective immediately, and your mail has been migrated.

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[The following could be set off somehow to make it separate from the main procedure. In a printed manual, it could be in box; in online help, it could be in a separate topic, with a link back to the main topic.]

Saving your Netscape address book in an LDIF file

Before you can import your Netscape Address Book into Eudora, you must first save it in an LDIF file.

1. Launch Netscape Communicator.
    
2. From the Communicator menu, choose Address Book.
    
3. From the File menu in Netscape Communicator, choose Save.
    
4. In the Save dialog box, name the file, using the .ldif extension and click Save.

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