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Import From Excel to Address Book?

I have several large lists in an Excel file that I would like to import into address book easily. Can this be done? If so, please provide some direction.

iMac 2.8 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Oct 23, 2008 8:16 AM

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Posted on Oct 23, 2008 8:32 AM

Save the files as tab delimited or CSV files and import using the address book import command

from Address Book help

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Importing contacts
Address Book can import contact information that you save or export from other applications in vCard, LDIF, tab-delimited, and comma-separated (CSV) formats.

You can export addresses in LDIF format from Netscape, and vCards from Palm Desktop, Entourage, Outlook, and others. You can export text files in tab-delimited or CSV format from most databases.

To import addresses from other applications:


Export addresses from the other application in vCard, LDIF, tab-delimited, or comma-separated (CSV) format.


When exporting tab-delimited or CSV files, you may want to note the order of the information fields. If the file doesn’t contain labels, you can refer to your notes to manually identify the fields in a later step.


When exporting from Palm Desktop, use the default column layout.


Verify that exported .txt or CSV files don’t contain line breaks, which can cause the import to fail. >Use a text editing application such as TextEdit to find and remove the line breaks.


In Address Book, choose File > Import, and then choose the format of the exported file. Choose “Text File” for a tab-delimited or CSV file.


Select the file that contains the exported addresses and click Open.


If you are importing a text file, use the pop-up menus in the Text File Import dialog to specify how to import the data.


If the first record contains labels instead of contact information, select the “Ignore first card” checkbox.


Use the left and right arrows to see different records in the file you’re importing, to help you determine how to set the pop-up menus.


If you don’t want to import a field, set the pop-up menu to “Do not import.”


To set the pop-up menus for address fields, choose the type of address (home, work, or other) in the pop-up menu next to the first item of the address. Then use the address pop-up menus that appear to choose the corresponding data for each address field.


If the application you’re exporting contacts from supports it, export vCards that include multiple contacts to speed up importing.
To see the most recently imported contacts, click Last Import in the Group column. This list is updated each time you import contacts. Use the View menu to show or hide the Last Import item in the Group column.

You can use iSync to import contacts from your Palm device. For more information, open iSync, choose Help > iSync Help, and then search for “palm.”


LN
5 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 23, 2008 8:32 AM in response to kd's G4

Save the files as tab delimited or CSV files and import using the address book import command

from Address Book help

Home Index

Importing contacts
Address Book can import contact information that you save or export from other applications in vCard, LDIF, tab-delimited, and comma-separated (CSV) formats.

You can export addresses in LDIF format from Netscape, and vCards from Palm Desktop, Entourage, Outlook, and others. You can export text files in tab-delimited or CSV format from most databases.

To import addresses from other applications:


Export addresses from the other application in vCard, LDIF, tab-delimited, or comma-separated (CSV) format.


When exporting tab-delimited or CSV files, you may want to note the order of the information fields. If the file doesn’t contain labels, you can refer to your notes to manually identify the fields in a later step.


When exporting from Palm Desktop, use the default column layout.


Verify that exported .txt or CSV files don’t contain line breaks, which can cause the import to fail. >Use a text editing application such as TextEdit to find and remove the line breaks.


In Address Book, choose File > Import, and then choose the format of the exported file. Choose “Text File” for a tab-delimited or CSV file.


Select the file that contains the exported addresses and click Open.


If you are importing a text file, use the pop-up menus in the Text File Import dialog to specify how to import the data.


If the first record contains labels instead of contact information, select the “Ignore first card” checkbox.


Use the left and right arrows to see different records in the file you’re importing, to help you determine how to set the pop-up menus.


If you don’t want to import a field, set the pop-up menu to “Do not import.”


To set the pop-up menus for address fields, choose the type of address (home, work, or other) in the pop-up menu next to the first item of the address. Then use the address pop-up menus that appear to choose the corresponding data for each address field.


If the application you’re exporting contacts from supports it, export vCards that include multiple contacts to speed up importing.
To see the most recently imported contacts, click Last Import in the Group column. This list is updated each time you import contacts. Use the View menu to show or hide the Last Import item in the Group column.

You can use iSync to import contacts from your Palm device. For more information, open iSync, choose Help > iSync Help, and then search for “palm.”


LN

Oct 23, 2008 8:35 AM in response to kd's G4

In Excel, save as comma-separated values, then in Address Book File/Import/Text file. You will get a dialog box asking you to assign the various Excel columns to the corresponding Address Book fields. Make sure in Excel that you have the same data type in each column (don't have the email address in col C for one then in D for another).

If some of your data contains commas (used as separators in CSV files) then instead choose to save as tab-delimited text. The procedure in Address book is the same.

User uploaded fileAK

Dec 16, 2008 5:03 PM in response to kd's G4

Has anyone found a comprehensive list of field labels to place in the first line of a csv file, to correctly input columns of address information? I found that the following field labels correctly map the input data to the corresponding Address Book values, by trial and error. Thanks

last
first
suffix
address (home) street
address (home) city
address (home) state
address (home) zip
address (home) country
phone (home)
phone (mobile)
phone (other)
phone (work)
email (home)

Import From Excel to Address Book?

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