Batch add prefix to phone numbers?

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Level 1

9 points

Batch add prefix to phone numbers?

I need to add 4 numbers and a dash as a prefix to what is already in the phone number fields of about 1,000 address book contacts, so that they work in another country when synced to a blackberry.

Some of them already have the prefix I want to add, but most dont. And the contacts vary in the amount of numbers in the already existing phone fields. But for now I would be happy enough adding the prefix to everything since most have it, then manually pulling it out of the ones where it is a duplicate or where it is from another country and doesnt need it.

Is there any easy way to do this that does not involve creating an AppleScript (learning that would take me about as long as doing it manually).

Im using Address Book version 4.1.1 on OS X.5.4

Thanks!

Message was edited by: mjd67

Message was edited by: mjd67

Message was edited by: mjd67

Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Dec 24, 2008 11:47 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Dec 24, 2008 2:04 PM in response to mjd67

Sorry, Address Book provides no method for doing that. But there's a simpler way of doing it: export your contacts as a single vCard file, then open it in a text editor, such as TextEdit. Examine the fields of the first contact to determine what you're looking to find, then use the Find/Replace feature to find and replace all instances with the characters you need. Save you changes and then test it by dragging & dropping the file back onto Address Book and overwrite the ones already there.

Be sure to work on a copy of your exported vCard file, not the original; in case you don't get the results you're looking for you can revert to what you started with.

Mulder

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,252 points

Dec 24, 2008 3:35 PM in response to mjd67

What prefix do you need? It can be done with Applescript.
Also, almost all phones support this format for international dialing:
+ <Country Code> <local code> <Number>
For example, a US number would be:
+1 (123) 456-7890
A UK number would be:
+44 (1234) 567890
However, I'm not sure how it handles local long distance access while in that country. In the uk, that number would be:
(01234) 567890

Regardless, I can probably write a generic script to add a prefix to the numbers that don't already have the prefix.

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Answer 3

mjd67 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 26, 2008 3:59 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks both for the help!

I think I'll have to do it by hand. It's actually for my mother in law so it's her problem, but it's too complicated because there are numbers from different countries and some need it and some don't. But thanks for the offer and help clarifying the options.

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