According to the blurb on the Fookes Software Web site, Mailbag Assistant should "save you time and frustration. This e-mail organiser complements your mail program and offers powerful tools to search, sort, export, extract information, and archive your messages."
The installation and initial configuration of Mailbag Assistant took less than five minutes. Once the setup application is launched, the wizard guides the operator through the remaining setup. The initial configuration takes place when the Mailbag Assistant application is launched for the first time. This basically gives the user the option to select which mail types/file types they wish to work with during that session of Mailbox Assistant. Users are given the option of launching that initial configuration screen each time the application is run. Further specific configuration/settings can be accessed via the tools menu or the edit/options menu.
The MailBag Assistant application is very impressive with a plethora of tools and data manipulation functions to satisfy most users. Unfortunately, as with most products that come with all the bells and whistles, the actual execution of some things can get a little confusing at times. There are great tools for extracting e-mail addresses as well as statistcal reporting tools. There is also a handy tip of the day pop-up whenever Mailbag Assistant is launched.
This application has support for over fourteen different e-mail clients and formats, which is far more than any other e-mail management application in this review, but not, as we mentioned, Outlook PST files.
Overall a very powerful application, in some respects too powerful. This program is best suited for a mail administrator or power e-mail user who is likely to receive or need to review thousands of e-mails. While it takes some time to get used to, once the operator has had some experience with this application, its actual functionality far outweighs the time it took to get to know it.
There is another application from Fookes Software which may be able to assist Outlook users. Fookes Software told us "There is also a specialised version of Mailbag Assistant called E-mail Examiner. It is targeted to people involved with computer forensics, although it can also be of interest to businesses who need to archive their MS Outlook or AOL mail. E-mail Examiner integrates third-party tools that enable it to import those two mailbox formats (without the presence of the corresponding mail clients). E-mail Examiner is distributed by Paraben and is available from www.paraben-forensics.com/examiner.html.
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| Product | Mailbag Assistant |
| Price | AU$52.80 per user |
| Vendor | Fookes Software |
| Phone | +41 26 927 2446 |
| Web | www.fookes.com |
| Interoperability |
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| Supports a very wide range of clients and formats; but doesn't support Outlook. | |
| Futureproofing |  |
| Excellent range of features and functions, but relatively difficult to master. | |
| ROI |  |
| Very well priced application for features. | |
| Service | |
| No information supplied. | |
| Rating |  ½ |
Why no use a Lotus Notes client instead. It does virtually all these products do and more. Not only that, but it does not leave a gaping hole in your system like the Mircrosoft product does.