using Vista Windows Contacts in Word 2003 mail merge

[Eileen M]

I am using Windows Vista Home Premium which has a program called Windows
Contacts that is used to store contact information. I would like to know if
it is possible to use these contacts in a mail merge using Word 2003. If so,
how do you tell Word where the contacts are?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You have to export the contacts. The trouble is that if your Vista system is
set up anything like mine, the function to do that will not be available on
the toolbar and Windows Help won't help. In that case, right-click somewhere
in the empty space between the contacts, click Properties, choose the
Customize tab, and select "Contacts" in the "Use this folder type as a
template" in the drop-down. The options relevant to Contacts should appear.
When you click the Export option, choose the CSV format export, not the VCF
format export, and select the fields you need.