Add +1 Prefix to Contact Phone numbers - is there an Apple Script solution?

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Level 1

5 points

Add +1 Prefix to Contact Phone numbers - is there an Apple Script solution?

Hey gang,

I have 700+ contacts that need to have +1 placed in front of them. I am using a new iPhone 3G in Canada on Fido. Fido's network will not automatically figure out that (310) 555-1234 should have a 1 in front of it. Apple support says there is an International Dialing Support feature in Setting/Phone but not all phones have it and mine does not.

Are there any suggestions/help to create an apple script that will plug a +1 in front of all my #'s? Local numbers dial fine with the +1 there so that's good news.

Cheers,

Eric

MacBook Pro/iPhone 3G, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Aug 9, 2008 6:31 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Jim VanLeeuwen

Level 6

18,878 points

Aug 9, 2008 5:00 PM in response to erickarl

I don't have a script, but I have a relatively painless work-around.

Use Address Book on your Macbook Pro. (Note: Make an address book archive first using File->Export->Address Book Archive in case we screw up.)

Select the Group in the left column you want to edit (All is a group). Go to File->Export->export group v card. Save the file on your desktop for ease of use. Control click on the vCards file and open with TextEdit. Note that all phone numbers are preceded by a colon (:).

Use the Edit->Find command to search your file for : and replace with :1-

Then reimport the file into Address Book.

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Answer 2

Aug 9, 2008 5:23 PM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

PS: You should probably delete all the vCards in the group before you import the edited file to avoid duplicates. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyhow, be sure to begin the entire process by making an address book archive so you have a way to recover from mistakes.

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Answer 3

simplify

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2008 6:03 AM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

I worked through this and it requires a little amendment. There are a lot of ":" colons in the vCards file, so:

Find "😟" and replace with ": 1(" .... I don't know how to shut of the emoticons, but that first Find quote is supposed to be "colon - open parenthesis" not unhappy face

Save it.

No need to delete all the vCards in the group. Just double click the vCards icon (for the file you just saved) on the desktop and Address Book with tell you that all the cards are duplicates that will be updated rather than added as duplicates.

Cheers.

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