Importing contacts with line breaks in the notes field

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Importing contacts with line breaks in the notes field

Hi all,

I'm trying to export my Thunderbird address book and import it into Apple Address book. Thunderbird exports a .csv file that includes line breaks (i.e. carriage return characters) in some of the fields that allow line breaks (mainly the notes field). Apple Address Book also allows line breaks in those fields.

However Apple Address Book hangs every time I try to import that CSV file. I can import it successfully if I eliminate all the line breaks in the CSV file first. However, the notes fields in my Apple Address Book then look broken.

So far I have tried:

- Importing the raw CSV that Thunderbird produces.
- Opening the CSV that Thunderbird produces in Excel, saving from there, and then importing into Apple Address Book.
- Changing the CSV file format from unix to mac.
- Replacing the carriage returns with "\n". This works, but the \n doesn't expand into a line break in Apple Address Book.

Any ideas on how I can preserve the line breaks in my address book?

Thanks,

Antun

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 11, 2009 9:59 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Dec 11, 2009 10:22 AM in response to antun

In any CSV file the line break is the default record delimiter unless you use quote marks around each field item. So you might then try placing quotes around each field or regenerating the CSV file using quotes and commas to separate the fields.

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Answer 2

antun Author

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Dec 11, 2009 12:09 PM in response to Kappy

Hi Kappy,

Thanks for your response.

Actually, it looks like Thunderbird does include quote marks around fields with carriage returns in them when it exports a CSV file. So the file I'm trying to import is already quoted.

Also, there's a difference between the *line feeds* that are the record delimiter in a UNIX format CSV file and *carriage returns* found within fields.

I have a shortened version of my address book that doesn't contain any personal info. The last record (there are 4 in the file) contains *carriage returns* in the notes field. When I open this up in my text editor, they show up as special characters (^M - unicode U+000D). They do not create a new line in my editor's display. This file opens fine in Excel, and the line breaks are preserved within Excel's cells. I've posted that here:

http://www.antunkarlovac.com/stuff/thunderbirdaddressbook-2.csv.zip

(I've zipped it too, to ensure that none of the file gets changed).

So the file format seems to be correct. Apple Address Book is just not reading it right.

-Antun

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Dec 11, 2009 12:17 PM in response to antun

Yes, that may be since notes from one application may not be compatible with those of another. Address Book's notes field does not use carriage returns or line delimiters to format text, so what you might do is to remove them altogether and just replace them with spaces.

There may be no convenient solution to translating from your other application. If your other application supports vCards, then you might try exporting vCards. Address Book is compatible with vCards.

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Answer 4

antun Author

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Dec 11, 2009 12:21 PM in response to Kappy

Hey Kappy,

But Apple's Address Book does support line breaks in the Notes field. If I create a contact in Apple Address Book, I can enter multiple lines of text in that field, and those lines are preserved.

What I'm asking is: What do I need to replace the carriage returns with (in my Thunderbird CSV file) so that when I import it into Apple Address Book they will show up as new lines?

-Antun

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Answer 5

antun Author

Level 1

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Dec 11, 2009 12:33 PM in response to antun

OK, I found this thread:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=107241

... and tried out the procedure listed there. It appears to work, but you have to use Abee after replacing carriage returns with \n. I guess the people who wrote Abee figured out what the magic character is 🙂

-Antun

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