Address Book - CSV Import Template?

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Level 1

8 points

Address Book - CSV Import Template?

I want to create a CSV file to import a large number of contacts into Address Book. I do not know what order the fields are supposed to be in. Does anybody know where I can find a CSV template to use to import these contacts into Address Book?

Thanks,
Dan

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Dec 9, 2008 4:04 PM

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Answer 1

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Dec 9, 2008 4:06 PM in response to Farkdan

What program are the contacts coming from? Can't you just export them as a vCard file and then import them into Address Book?

Mulder

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Answer 2

Farkdan Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 9, 2008 7:51 PM in response to Mulder

They are coming from text files and printed sources and there is no really easy way to do them as Vcards. I know Address Book allows you to import CSV files so I just need a template or even to know what order the fields go in to make a file to import.

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Answer 3

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Dec 9, 2008 9:08 PM in response to Farkdan

I can't tell you what order they go in, but generally speaking, you would use the typical First Name, Last Name, etc order of things. If you take the record with the most amount of data and put that in a text file named 'test.csv' and import it without any field names, Address Book will show you a screen where you can choose which field names you want those pieces of data assigned to, and from that you can create the field names in your actual CSV file and then import it.

Keep in mind that CSV has a very specific syntax it's expecting, so if you don't conform you data to it, you won't get the results you want. You can read it here: CSV Syntax

Mulder

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Answer 4

Farkdan Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2008 6:42 AM in response to Mulder

Thanks Mulder! You are correct that the AB program lets me assign the fields when I do the import.

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