# Migrating your data into Ubuntu

This chapter provides instructions on importing your data from Windows applications to the corresponding Ubuntu applications. The instructions assume that you will use the default collection of applications installed with Ubuntu and have followed the instructions in the chapter.

## Files

You will probably want to move your files into your Home folder. It is considered good practice to store all of your personal files (such as documents, pictures, music and the like) in your Home folder. Then, they are all in one easily-accessed location.

To access your Home folder, press &home-folder;. You may find it useful to have separate folders for different types of files, and some folders may already exist by default such as `Documents`, `Music`, `Pictures`, and `Videos`. This will help to keep things organized and you will be able to find your files more quickly and easily if they are categorized in this manner. You can create new folders inside your Home folder by pressing File Create Folder.

How you copy your files from Windows into your Home folder will depend on how you decided to store your files from Windows. See for more information on this. However you decided to store your files, the procedure for transferring them across is very simple. For a CD or DVD for example, you would use the following procedure:

1. Insert the disc into the disc drive of your computer. After a short while, a disc icon should appear on your desktop.

2. Double-click the icon to view the contents of the disc.

3. Ensure that your Home folder is open in another window. You can open your Home folder by clicking File New Window.

4. In the window corresponding to the disc you inserted, press Edit Select All. This will select all of the contents of the disc.

5. Press Edit Copy to make a copy of all of the selected files.

6. In the window corresponding to your Home folder, press Edit Paste to copy all of the files to your Home folder. If you have many files, this may take a long time.

7. Once the copying process has finished, your files will be available to use as normal.

### Importing Photos

Ubuntu includes the F-Spot Photo Manager, which you can use to organize all of your photos.

1. Open your Home folder, then open the Pictures folder. If it does not exist, you can create the folder first by pressing File Create Folder and typing `Pictures`.

2. Copy any photos you have into the folder you just created.

3. Press &f-spot; to start F-Spot.

4. The Import screen should be shown. If it is not, press the Import button or go to Photo Import... to show it.

5. To prevent two copies of your photos from being stored, un-check the Copy file to the Pictures folder.

6. From Import source select the option Select Folder. Select the `Pictures` folder in your Home folder by clicking it once.

7. Press Import to start the import process. Depending on how many photos you have, this may take a while.

### Importing Music

Another useful application installed by default in Ubuntu is the Rhythmbox Music Player. This allows you to organize and play all of your music.

1. Open your Home folder, then open the Music folder. If it does not exist, you can create the folder first by pressing File Create Folder and typing `Music`.

2. Copy any music files you have into the folder you just created.

3. Press &rhythmbox; to start Rhythmbox.

4. Press Music Import Folder... to begin importing your music. The Import Folder into Library screen will appear.

5. Click the `Music` folder in your Home folder in order to select it, and then press Open to import all playable music in that folder into Rhythmbox.

6. The import process may take a while depending on how many music files you have. Once finished, you can organize and play your music using Rhythmbox.

Rhythmbox will alert you if it encounters a file it cannot play. In this case, it is likely that the file cannot be played because support for the audio format it uses is not currently installed. See for more information on this.

## Emails

If you saved your emails from Windows, you may now want to import them into the Evolution mail client. The following instructions assume that you are importing emails exported using Mozilla Thunderbird, as described in :

1. Start Evolution by pressing &evolution-mail;.

2. Press File Import... to start the Evolution Import Assistant. Then, press Forward.

3. Select Import a single file and then press Forward.

4. Press the box next to Filename: that says (None), locate the folder which you saved your emails in and open it.

5. Open the folder `Local Folders`, which is found inside the `Mail` folder, and look for files with names such as `Inbox`, `Unsent Messages`, and `Sent`. If you did not store your email in the `Local Folders` area, choose the appropriate folder in `Mail`. Select a file and press Open. If you have many email messages, you may have to wait a while for the file to be checked before you can continue.

6. In File type, Berkeley mailbox (mbox) should be selected. Press Forward.

7. Select the location you would like to copy the saved emails into by pressing the button labeled Destination folder. By default this will be the `Inbox` folder, which is the recommended destination for your emails. Then, press Forward.

8. Press Import to import your email messages. If you have a large number of emails, then the import process may take a while. Once importing has finished, your emails should be available for viewing immediately.

## Contacts/Address Book

If you saved your address book from Windows, you can now import your contacts into Evolution. The following instructions assume that you are importing the address book from Microsoft Outlook Express 6 or Microsoft Outlook 2002:

1. Start Evolution by pressing &evolution-mail;.

2. Press File Import... to start the Evolution Import Assistant. Then, press Forward.

3. Select Import a single file and then press Forward.

4. Press the box next to Filename: that says (None), locate the folder which you saved your address book in and open it.

5. Select the backup file for your address book and press Open.

6. From File type, select VCard (.vcf, .gcrd) or Outlook CSV or Tab (.csv, .tab), depending on which format you saved your address book into. Press Forward.

7. Choose a location in which to save the contacts, such as On This Computer Personal. Press Forward.

8. Press Import to import the contacts into Evolution. Once importing has completed, the imported contacts should be immediately available.

## Calendar

If you saved a calendar from Windows, you can now import it into Evolution, the default calendar application.

1. Start Evolution by pressing &evolution-mail;.

2. Press File Import... to start the Evolution Import Assistant. Then, press Forward.

3. Select Import a single file and then press Forward.

4. Press the box next to Filename: that says (None), locate the folder which you saved your calendar in and open it.

5. Select the backup file for your calendar and press Open.

6. From File type, select vCalendar files (.vcf), iCalendar files (.ics) or Outlook CSV or Tab (.csv, .tab), depending on which format you saved your calendar into. Press Forward.

7. Choose a location in which to save the calendar, such as On This Computer Personal. Ensure that Appointments and Meetings is selected and then press Forward.

8. Press Import to import the calendar into Evolution. Once importing has completed, the new calendar should be immediately available.

## Browser Bookmarks/Favorites

If you saved the list of favorite web pages from the browser you used on Windows, you can now import them into the web browser available with Ubuntu. The following instructions are intended for users of the default Firefox Web Browser who are importing their favorites from Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. Please see for more information.

1. Press &firefox; to start the Firefox Web Browser.

2. Press Bookmarks Organize Bookmarks... to launch the Bookmark Manager.

3. Press Import and Backup Import HTML... and choose the From an HTML File option, then press Next.

4. Find and select the file which you originally exported from Internet Explorer (see ) and press Open.

5. Your list of favorite web pages should be imported into Firefox.