Doug D.
Level 1
(0 points)
Q: How do I export contacts to .csv format from my Mac?
I am trying to export my contacts in .csv and open in another program. but contacts only allows you to export a Vcard or an .ABBU file
Doug
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.5)
SGIII
Level 6
(10,796 points)
Hi Doug,
contacts only allows you to export a Vcard or an .ABBU file
Actually, it's easy to get information in .csv format out of Contacts. Instead of using File > Export, you can do this.
If you have Numbers 2.3:
Select multiple contacts in Contacts (you can drag all contacts into a new group and select them all from that group) and drag them to the Numbers 2.3 canvas. Then File > Export > CSV...
If you have Numbers 3:
Select multiple contacts in Contacts, command-c to copy, click once in a cell of an existing table, and command-v to paste. Then in Numbers 3 File > Export to > CSV...
Note that the above is for the comma-separated flavor of CSV (character-separated-values). If you want tab-separated, instead of File > Export to > CSV from Numbers, simply select the cells with the data, command-c to copy, and in an open document in a text editor, command-v to paste. Then save with the desired file suffix.
There are also AppleScript solutions that extract directly from Contacts to a .csv file. But going through Numbers (because you posted to this forum I assume you already have it) is probably the easiest.
SG
