Import Contacts From Excel to Outlook Not Working

[Mladen]

Dear All,

I am trying to import into Oultook Contacts data from an Excel file (First
Name, Last Name, E-mail Address, for example).

A. Tried the following:
1. Save Excel file as tab delimited txt
2. Try to import into Outlook Contacts
3. Outlook does not recognize the column values (puts all values in a single
field). So I cannot map the fields from the txt file into Contacts details.

B. Tried the following:
1. Save Excel file as CSV
2. Try to import into Outlook Contacts
3. Outlook again does not recognize the column values (puts all values in a
single field). So I cannot map the fields from the txt file into Contacts
details.

C. Tried the following:
1. Save Excel file as regular Excel file
2. Define "Names" from "Insert->Names->Define". For example I select all
cells from the column with the First Names and put a name like "First".
3. During the Outlook import contacts wizard I map the Names I defined into
Outlook Contacts details (for example Phone -> BusinessPhone2)
4. Data is successfully imported, but a new contact is created for each cell
in the excel worksheet, for example

" | John | Williams | +111 (1) 111 111| " - this is the row in excel

will generate 3 separate contacts into Outlook:

| John | | |
| | Williams | |
| | | +111 (1) 111 111|

Thanks in advance,

Mladen

 

[Karl Timmermans]

First red flag in your description is "Save Excel as regular Excel file" -
that would be necessary why?..................is this an Excel file that was
generated from a web download or provided by one of the major lead
generating services by any chance? If not, what was the source of the file
that would require "re-saving" an Excel file as an Excel file?

Re: option C - the named range is incorrect - one named range needs to cover
all the columns/cells including the header row - not just a single column.

You can either correct the "named range" or simply save the worksheet as a
CSV file (using the file after it was re-saved which BTW is not an uncommon
requirement for "Excel" files of certain origins regardless of the original
file extension - hence the reason for the questions above).

Karl
____________________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer/DataPorter/Exporter/Toolkit/Duplicate Contact Mgr
"Contact import/export/data management tools for Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Mladen]

Thanks for the help. I corrected the named range and now it works. It is
strange why would you need a named range in this case.

"Save Excel as regular Excel file" - was a wrong explination of the step. I
wanted to say that in that case I used regular excel file, not CSV ...

Kind Regards,

Mladen

 

[Karl Timmermans]

#1 - Outlook import wizard always requires a <named range> for Excel even if
there is only a single worksheet
#2 - Tab-delim files are "tempermental" to say the least when it comes to
Outlook even when created via an Office product but may also somehow have
something to do with why a CSV formatted file didn't work
#3 - Re: CSV - only reason ever seen for the issue you described is because
of the "separator" character. Excel uses the "list separator" character
found in your regional settings when constructing a CSV file. The fact that
saving the CSV file resulted in Outlook not being able to parse the text
lines indicates something else on your system.

However, at the end of the day, things worked and that's all that matters.

Karl
____________________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer/DataPorter/Exporter/Toolkit/Duplicate Contact Mgr
"Contact import/export/data management tools for Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com