Export to Vista Contacts

[Olivier]

Hi,

I want to export my Outlook 2003 contacts to my new Vista laptop, wch only
runs Windows Mail (Vista Contacts). I tried the csv files, but the import
function does not recognize it properly (it sees all the headlines as one
field) (surprisingly, it works welle with Thunderbird, but my telephone sync
tool does not recognize Thunderbird...).
Is there any better way than using csv?

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

Windows Contacts might allow for vCard import.

 

[Olivier]

Thanks. In Outlook 2003, how do you export all vCards at once (I have about
1300 contacts)?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks. In Outlook 2003, how do you export all vCards at once (I have
about 1300 contacts)?

Outlook 2003 can't do that, but there are third-party tools that will. See
this, for example: http://vsync.4team.biz/

 

[Olivier]

OK, but I only have to do that once, for exporting from Outlook to Vista
Contacts. I will not buy third-party sync tool for only one export. Any other
idea?

 

[Gordon]

Hi,

I want to export my Outlook 2003 contacts to my new Vista laptop, wch only
runs Windows Mail (Vista Contacts). I tried the csv files, but the import
function does not recognize it properly (it sees all the headlines as one
field) (surprisingly, it works welle with Thunderbird, but my telephone
sync
tool does not recognize Thunderbird...).
Is there any better way than using csv?

Presumably you have Outlook Express on your old machine? Import to your
Outlook Express Addressbook, copy that across, and I believe that Windows
Mail will import a WAB....

 

[Brian Tillman]

OK, but I only have to do that once, for exporting from Outlook to
Vista Contacts. I will not buy third-party sync tool for only one
export. Any other idea?

Doing them one at a time is all I can conceive, if export/import won't work.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Still have to use CSV as the intermediary for that, however. You cannot
export or import Contacts directly from Outlook to OE.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Focusing in on a key element of this problem where you wrote "it sees all
the headlines as one field"

Do you in fact have a properly constructed CSV file (if in North America -
each field name would be separated by a comma - else it would be separated
by the list separator character as defined in your regional settings
depending on what country your in)? You don't have a tab-delimited file do
you by any chance?

Since I don't use Vista or Vista WebMail on a day to day basis decided to
test a CSV import using a CSV file created by an Outlook export on our Vista
test system for my own curiousity and it worked just as advertised. When all
the fields in a header row are seen as a single field, usually means that
the file is not constructed as expected or it is constructed using a
separator character which differs from what the (importing) system is
expecting. Would be totally amazed if something as fundamental as a CSV
import did not work without there being some underlying cause related to the
data itself.

Just a thought given that the other responses seem to accept the premise
that the problem is that the import function doesn't correctly recognize a
CSV file.

Karl

___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Diane Poremsky]

if csv fails, you'll need to do it one at a time or try address magic
http://www.slipstick.com/config/convaddr.htm

you can try to fix the CSV by opening it in Excel and saving as comma
delimited csv.

 

[Olivier]

Many thanks for all this strongly appreciated help. Indeed, it seems that
there is something with the csv format. It was generated by Outlook 2003, on
my XP office desktop. The strange thing is that Thunderbird and Scalc (Star
Offfice spreadsheet) properly imports it (scalc pointing that it is comma
spearated), but neither Excel nor Windows Mail, which both display it as a
single field with "Name","Fisrt Name",... displaying commas, but not
interpreting them.
It might be that it comes from the regional settings (I am in France), since
the file is generated and read on different machines, but I could not figure
where to change it in Vista settings.
Indeed it is not tab separated, since this is another option in Outlook
export.
I also tried to go through LDIF format, which Windows Mail can import,
generating it in Thunderbird; it worked well for some dozens of contacts, but
it suddenly failed, creating import errors. I am now trying to generate Works
database format... I am nealry desperate, as you might see!

Thanks again for your help and for any idea.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Well, the key to this problem is "I am in France" so going to assume you are
running under French regional settings. That being the case - here is what
the problem is:

#1 - When Outlook exports - the CSV file is created using a comma delimitor
regardless of what the regional setting is (and in turn expects a comma
delimiter when importing). In a perfect world, one would expect that a comma
would be used universally in all CSV files (but that's not the case when it
comes to Microsoft Office)
#2 - MS Excel uses the "list separator" character as defined in the Regional
Settings for the field delimiter when saving (or opening) a CSV file
#3 - If I was to make an educated guess - suspect that the Vista Mail import
process follows the same rules as MS Excel and therefore is expecting the
field delimter to be a ";" (semi-colon) which is used under French (France)
regional settings and therefore is the reason that everything appears in the
first field.
#4 - Why does Thunderbird etc work? Simple, it's expecting the "," separator
which is what Outlook used when creating the original CSV export file

If my suspicion(s) are correct - if you changed the regional setting on your
Vista machine to be US English (or any setting where the list separator
character is a comma), and then imported the very same CSV file via Vista
Window's Mail - it probably would work (don't have a Vista machine handy at
the moment to verify this prior to posting this here but fairly confident
based on your description that my suspicion is correct). Actually, once you
change the regional setting - Excel will read the file correctly as well
which you can check on any XP or Vista machine (that I know for sure).

To change your regional setting on the Vista machine - just go to All
Programs - Control Panel - Regional Settings and change the language
setting.

Karl

PS - I now acutely remember why we included the ability to change the CSV
field delimitor in our CG Exporter product and have to treat many
internationally created CSV files as "custom delimited" instead of "comma
separated" in our current Outlook import products.
___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com