Importing contact data from Excel

[Nellie]

I'm trying to import contact name, e-mail address and web page address from
Excel 2003 into Outlook Contacts 2003. In Excel each contact is one row
spanning 3 columns. I've followed the instructions in Outlook Help but when
the import takes place one set of contacts is created containing just the
names, another set containing just the e-mail addresses, and another set
containing just the web page addresses. The problem appears to be the field
mapping - the import wizard won't let me map all the three fields as a single
set. I map each field (range name) but Outlook is clearly treating each
range name as a new record. I suspect that I'm making a simple mistake
somewhere along the line.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Short answer - save the worksheet as a CSV file and import the CSV file.

Some background info/opinions on Outlook/Excel:

Outlook & Excel - Importing from/Exporting To
http://www.contactgenie.com/blog/?p=75

Karl

--
____________________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - QuickPort/DataPort/Exporter/Toolkit/Duplicate Contact Mgr
"Contact import/export/data management tools for Outlook '2000/2010"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Nellie]

Thanks Karl,

How does Outlook know which Contact fields are in the file?

 

[Karl Timmermans]

There two ways to go about importing data

#1 - Name your fields the same as an Outlook field name - called
"auto-mapping" - wonderful concept but not recommended IMHO. Doing that is
nothing more than a "time waster" and prone to errors. The less experienced
a person is, the more likely errors will occur and anyone who is
experienced would be able to map the fields manually faster than messing
around ensuring that "field names" match those that Outlook is expecting
for the purposes of "auto-mapping".

#2 - When you go through the import process - you will come across a window
that has "Map Custom Fields" on it - click it and then map the fields from
your input data source to the desired target Outlook fields. This of course
presumes that the first row in your file (otherwise referred to as the
<header> row) contains field names - or in Excel terms, each cell in the
first row contains a name that refers to all cells in the "column". These
names simply have to make sense to you so that you know what is contained
each column/cell when you manually "map" your fields - absolutely no
requirement to have these names match any Outlook field name

Karl
--
____________________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - QuickPort/DataPort/Exporter/Toolkit/Duplicate Contact Mgr
"Contact import/export/data management tools for Outlook '2000/2010"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Nellie]

Thanks Karl - #2 worked fine.
--
Nellie

There two ways to go about importing data

#1 - Name your fields the same as an Outlook field name - called
"auto-mapping" - wonderful concept but not recommended IMHO. Doing that is
nothing more than a "time waster" and prone to errors. The less experienced
a person is, the more likely errors will occur and anyone who is
experienced would be able to map the fields manually faster than messing
around ensuring that "field names" match those that Outlook is expecting
for the purposes of "auto-mapping".

#2 - When you go through the import process - you will come across a window
that has "Map Custom Fields" on it - click it and then map the fields from
your input data source to the desired target Outlook fields. This of course
presumes that the first row in your file (otherwise referred to as the
<header> row) contains field names - or in Excel terms, each cell in the
first row contains a name that refers to all cells in the "column". These
names simply have to make sense to you so that you know what is contained
each column/cell when you manually "map" your fields - absolutely no
requirement to have these names match any Outlook field name

Karl
--
____________________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - QuickPort/DataPort/Exporter/Toolkit/Duplicate Contact Mgr
"Contact import/export/data management tools for Outlook '2000/2010"
http://www.contactgenie.com




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