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Importing/Exporting Contacts

Usually, when Entourage imports your data from another application it will import your contacts. However many users need to import their contacts from a web account like Hotmail, Gmail Yahoo or AOL. Your best option is to select export as a .csv file. How to import a .csv file.

Contacts are often stored in a tab or comma delimited file. A common PC file is the Comma Separated Values (.cvs), sometimes also called Comma Delimited. Individual contacts are .vcf files or Vcards. If you have a a gazillion contacts, you might want to use a tab or comma delimited file rather than Vcards.

Export as tab delimited file. You can then export to Excel and create a .csv file.

File --> Export --> Select Contacts to a list (tab-delimited text)

Export a single Vcard:

  1. Dragging a contact to the desktop will create a Vcard.
  2. Export as Vcard
    1. Click Address Book , and then click the contact that you want to send as a vCard.
    2. On the Contact menu, click Forward as vCard.
    3. A blank e-mail message opens with the vCard attached.

To export all of your contacts as Vcards:

  1. In the folder list, click the address book folder that you want to export, and then drag it onto the desktop.
  2. Address book folders that you export by dragging onto the desktop are saved as folders containing a vCard (.vcf files) for each contact.

You will need to Uncheck under View in the Menu bar ""Show Mail folders only"


Now in the Folder list you will see


Drag the Address Book icon to the desktop. It will create a folder with your entire Address Book as Vcards. Be sure to let Entourage switch windows to the Address Book before dragging. Exchange accounts, drag the Contacts icon shown in that account.

Other Options to share your contacts:

Plaxo for Mac is a freeware option to keep your contacts in sync between multiple accounts and computers.

Reminder! Backup your contacts frequently. You can use the tutorial for time-machine-like backups for your Identity as a guide to create a backup of your contact file. Double insurance. I do this weekly.

Export a group as a tab delimited file:

Exporting Entourage contacts as a tab delimited file gets all contacts. If you want to export a specific group, you can export as an Entourage archive (.rge).This file can only be used by Entourage. To export as a tab delimited file, use this workaround:

Export as an .rge file. Select the category for that group and export that category only. THEN create a new Identity in Entourage and import the .rge file. NOW you can export it as a tab delimited file.

Import contacts from Mac OS X Address Book

Option 1) You can export one or more of your contacts from the Mac OS X Address Book as an electronic business card, also called a vCard, and then drag the vCard file into Entourage to import your contacts.

1. Export your contacts from Address Book as a vCard file. For instructions, see "Exporting contacts" in Mac OS X Address Book Help.

2. Drag the vCard file from its location on your hard disk to the Contacts pane in Entourage 2008.

Option 2) Starting with Entourage 2004 (update 11.2.3), Sync Services allow you to sync Entourage's Address Book to Apple's Address Book. See Sync-Services FAQs for more info. Recommended reading: Switch from Apple Mail to Entourage

Compare your contacts from Apple's Address Book with the Entourage Address Book using a tab delimited file in Excel.

See above for exporting Entourage Address Book as tab delimited file.

Apple's Address Book, only lets you export contacts only as vCards and Address Book archives. To export as a tab delmited file use Address Book Exporter (donationware). It’s a simple utility that takes selected groups of contacts and exports them as a single tab-delimited plain text file.

The Address Book Exporter comes with templates including one for Entourage. Outlook, Palm Desktop and Yahoo templates are also included.