No CSV export from Addressbook?

Since posting, I've found several solutions via searching the web. I don't know if we are allowed to mention apps here, but there's Export Address Book ($18) and Address Book Export (free/shareware) for starters. So it can be done. My point is more that Apple usually tries to make things easy and logical. So not having a comma or tab delimited export seems out of line with usual Apple UI.

Also, I've not used VCards being new to Addressbook, I've been using a contact manager for years and just migrated to it.

What I need to do is see my contacts in a spreadsheet to whittle it down to a call list I need to make. But being able to see the list in Excel in a big open format is what I need in this case.

I selected my entire contact list inside Addressbook and exported vCards and got one 455kb card which Excel won't open, so I will need to use one of the available 3rd party applications.

I just think Apple should have an Export built in.

Are you referring to using 3rd party apps or you can export a comma or tab delimited file from within Addressbook? If so, where do we find it?

Oh, I totally missed that sorry. I'm in Automator now and see what you mean.

For those not familiar with Automator, it's in your Applications folder. Launch it and then you'll see a window of several icons.

Select and Choose the Application icon.

Then in the left column of Automator you'll see Library and Contacts under it along with other choices. Single click "Contacts" and in the middle column you'll now see a new list of options, drag "Get Contact Information" to the far right column (Drag actions to build workflow).

Now you'll see all your Contact fields and in the top row: "Export Format" with a pulldown menu with: Formatted Text, Spreadsheet (tabs) and AppleScript Lists.

Choose Spreadsheet (tabs) if you want a file of your contacts that you can open in a program like Excel.

You'll also note that you can check or uncheck which fields you want to export.

I assume that when you are ready, you click "Run" in the upper right of the window.

Right Barney?

Thanks Barney for pointing me/us here.
Steven

This being the first time I've used this method, I don't know the answer. Sorry. Anyone else know!

Don't own bento, but I do own Filemaker. I hadn't thought of using that or bento since I just wanted a simple spreadsheet compatible export to view in Excel.

The reason for this is because I have about 1,000 records in Addressbook and needed to be able to quickly and easily see all the records and then delete down to just the ones I wanted for a mailing. It is easier to do this in Excel then in Addressbook. Plus you can sort on each column for different views of your database that you can't do in Addressbook.