Help required

[michelle <michelle msknight com>]

Hi Folks,

Well, as is probably traditional with all people joining a mailing list, 
I'm looking for help!!! :-)

I switched to Linux some time ago and was using Kmail since 2003. It was 
a nice piece of kit until earlier this year they released a new version 
and some of the mails were kept in a database.

Well, I'm a person that likes to keep backups and ease of transfer so I 
wasn't very keen on this (my mail folders back up to a server every 
night) and when the transfer process lost loads of mails, I had to switch.

First in line was Thunderbird, but it has now had a couple of instances 
where mails have been lost. The latest was this evening where I've lost 
two months worth from my in box and my sent items. And I'm gutted.

Earlier run ins with Evolution scratched that off my list because it 
didn't have the functions I wanted, which aren't much, but my 
experiences of Evolution put me off it.

So here I am, with Balsa freshly installed.

I've had a look on the FAQ and run through some of the archives but I 
can't find a way to import Firefox; the things I did find on general web 
searches were a bit old.

I am faced with exporting each folder, one at a time. The options are...

EML
HTML
Plain Text
Plain Text (one file)
Spreadsheet (csv)
Just Index (html)
just index (csv)

I tried running their full multi-folder export and dropping it in to the 
Balsa folder, but on restart balsa wouldn't see them .. I'm not 
surprised at that, but I was hoping to get lucky :-)

So before I engage on a load of work, I'm after a few questions to be 
answered if someone has the time please...

1) Are there any plans for Balsa to use anything other than flat files?
2) Is there an option for outgoing mails to be filtered to folders?
3) Is there an option that incoming mails can be forwarded to other 
e-mail recipients?
4) Is there a regular automatic maintenance routine to help guard 
against corruption?

(long story short is that the e-mail system is running all the time; I 
get any important e-mails forwarded to my mobile phone e-mail. Also, if 
I send to certain people, my outgoing mails get filed in the same place 
so I can keep track of conversations easily.)

Thanks in advance for any help people can offer. I know that this is a 
big ask, but I'm a person in trouble and need to make sure that I'm 
making the right move.

Thanks for your time.

Michelle Knight