Reading an old Lotus Organizer file (OR5)

The only possible solution I can think of is to install Parallels + Windows and get a copy of Organizer 6. From there you could open the OR5 file, view the calendar, and export to Outlook. Or just install Organizer 6 on a pc and work with it there.

You will probably have to look on eBay for Organizer 6 since IBM discontinued it last month (June 11, 2013). Also be aware if you are using Win7, Organizer seems to run in Win7 32bit but not well or not at all on Win 7 64bit. I doubt Organizer will run on Win 8 at all.

Or just install Organizer 6 on a pc and work with it there.

Lotus Organizer 6 can export to the following file types:

• Text-ASCII Delimited (*.TXT)
• ANSI Text (*.TXT)
• dBASE (*.DBF)
• FoxPro (*.DBF)
• vCalendar (*.VCS)
• iCalendar (*.ICS)
• Lotus iCalendar (*.LCS)

But be aware of the following:

• Some file types are only available for certain data types
• Most exports require manually mapping Organizer fields to export fields
• The iCalendar export may or may not work with Apple iCal - you will have to experiment. Lotus did a very early implementation of vCalendar and iCalendar file types and it may not jive with contemporary calendar products like iCal.

Organizer 6 was released in 1999 (14 years ago!) and neither Lotus nor IBM ever really updated it after 2003 (even before then it was hardly ever updated).

Have you tried exporting to an iCalendar .ics file instead of vCalendar? (vCalendar is an older spec than iCalendar)

As to field mapping, this is something that has to be done in Organizer. My recollection is when mapping is available or required, Organizer prompts you as part of the export process. It's not done outside Organizer.