6 Steps to Convert Mail to Excel Open Source

How to convert mail to excel open source – In this guide, we will provide a simple step-by-step tutorial on how to convert email to excel using available open source applications.

Have you ever found yourself combing through dozens—or even hundreds—of emails just to pull out important data? If so, you’re not alone. Many of us rely on email for business transactions, client communications, invoices, and more.

The good news is that there’s a better way to manage all that information: converting your emails into an organized Excel spreadsheet. Better still, you can do it for free using open-source tools.

Why Convert Email Data to Excel?

Centralized Data: Excel (or CSV) gives you a single location for all your email details, making it easy to sort, filter, and analyze.
Time Savings: No more copy-pasting data from emails into a spreadsheet—automation does the heavy lifting.
Improved Reporting: With your email data in Excel, you can create pivot tables, charts, and graphs for better reporting and insights.
Open-Source Flexibility: By opting for open-source tools, you avoid hefty subscription fees and gain the freedom to customize solutions to your exact needs.

Top Open-Source Tools for Converting Mail to Excel

There are several open-source tools and libraries that can help you extract email content and save it to an Excel file. Below are some of the most popular options:

Python + IMAP/POP3 Libraries
- Python has built-in modules like imaplib or poplib for fetching emails from your email server.
- Great for automation—connect to your inbox, pull new emails, parse them, and store the information in Excel.
mail-parser (Python Library)
- A lightweight library specifically designed to parse email content (headers, body, attachments).
- Simplifies the process of extracting data without dealing with raw email protocols directly.
openpyxl or XlsxWriter (Python Libraries)
- Libraries that let you create and edit Excel files (.xlsx) programmatically.
- Pair them with mail-parser to quickly build spreadsheets from email content.
Pandas (Python Library)
- While typically associated with data analysis, Pandas can also handle Excel and CSV files easily.
- If your goal is to do more data manipulation or complex filtering, Pandas is a powerhouse.
Mail2Forum / Custom Scripts
- Some open-source projects and scripts on platforms like GitHub can be adapted to your needs.
- Ideal if you prefer a ready-made tool that you can tweak, rather than coding from scratch.

Step-by-Step: Convert Emails to Excel with Python

Below is a straightforward tutorial using Python, imaplib, mail-parser, and openpyxl. Don’t worry if you’re not a Python expert—this is more approachable than it might seem at first glance.

1. Set Up Your Environment

Install Python
- If you haven’t installed Python yet, head over to python.org and download the latest version.
Install Required Libraries
- Open your terminal (or command prompt) and run the following:
  
  bash
  
  pip install mail-parser openpyxl
- This command installs:
  - mail-parser for extracting data from email messages
  - openpyxl for creating and modifying Excel (.xlsx) files

2. Connect to Your Email Server

You’ll need your email server details (IMAP server, username, password) for this step. For Gmail, for example:

IMAP Server: imap.gmail.com
Port: 993 (often the default for IMAP with SSL)

Here’s a quick example using imaplib:

3. Search and Fetch Emails

Next, we want to pick specific emails to process. For simplicity, let’s fetch all unread emails:

4. Parse Email Content

Now the fun part: extracting useful data from each message. We’ll use mail-parser to parse the raw email.

python

from mailparser import parse_from_bytes
import openpyxl

from openpyxl import Workbook




# Create a new Excel workbook

wb = Workbook()

ws = wb.active

ws.title = "Email Data"
# Write header row (customize as needed)

ws.append(["From", "Subject", "Date", "Body"])
for email_id in id_list:

    # Fetch the email by ID

    status, data = mail_server.fetch(email_id, '(RFC822)')

    raw_email = data[0][1]




    # Parse the raw email content

    mail = parse_from_bytes(raw_email)
    # Extract data fields (customize as needed)

    from_field = mail.from_

    subject_field = mail.subject

    date_field = mail.date

    body_field = mail.text_plain[0] if mail.text_plain else ""

# Append the extracted data to Excel ws.append([from_field, subject_field, date_field, body_field[:100]]) # truncated body just for example

5. Save Your Excel File

Finally, save the spreadsheet to your desired location:

6. Wrap It All Up

Once the script finishes, you’ll have an Excel file with rows containing your email data—ready to sort, filter, or further analyze.

Pro Tips & Best Practices

Use CSV for Simplicity
If you don’t need the bells and whistles of Excel, consider saving your output as a CSV file. Pandas can do this easily:

python

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({"From": [...], "Subject": [...], ...}) df.to_csv("email_data.csv", index=False)
Filter Specific Emails
Use IMAP search criteria (like FROM, SUBJECT, or SINCE) to grab only the messages you need.
Secure Your Credentials
Avoid hardcoding usernames and passwords. Use environment variables or a secure credential store instead.
Schedule Automation
If you run this script on a regular schedule (via cron job, Windows Task Scheduler, etc.), you can maintain an up-to-date Excel file with minimal manual effort.
Respect Privacy & Legal Requirements
Always ensure that you have permission to store or process personal data from emails. Stay compliant with local data protection laws.

Conclusion

Converting your emails to Excel might sound like a daunting task, but with the right open-source tools, it’s totally achievable—even if you’re new to programming. By leveraging libraries like mail-parser and openpyxl (or CSV formats with Pandas), you can seamlessly pull data from your inbox and organize it into a powerful spreadsheet.

Whether you’re trying to analyze customer inquiries, sort through invoices, or simply declutter your inbox, automating your mail-to-Excel workflow can save you time, reduce errors, and help you focus on the tasks that matter most.

So, why wait? Give it a try, and soon enough, you’ll have all your email data at your fingertips—no more endless scrolling and copy-pasting. Happy data wrangling!

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Why Convert Email Data to Excel?

Top Open-Source Tools for Converting Mail to Excel

Step-by-Step: Convert Emails to Excel with Python

1. Set Up Your Environment

2. Connect to Your Email Server

3. Search and Fetch Emails

4. Parse Email Content

5. Save Your Excel File

6. Wrap It All Up

Pro Tips & Best Practices

Conclusion

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