Are you one of those people that organize your personal contacts' information in
a spreadsheet, but refuse to enter them into your Microsoft Outlook Contacts Folder
manually, one by one? That's because you don't have to!
If all of your contacts are stored in an Excel spreadsheet or CSV (comma separated
values) file, importing them into Outlook isn't as hard as you might think.
1. If the contact information is already in CSV file format, go to step 2. If the
contact information is stored in an Excel spreadsheet, you will first need to export
the data into a CSV file. To export an Excel spreadsheet to a CSV file,
simply open the spreadsheet. Make sure the columns have appropriate headings, click
on File, and then Save As. In the Save As
dialog box next to Save as type, select CSV.
Change the name of the file and the folder you are saving it to, if necessary. Then
click Save.
2. If the contact information is already in CSV format, you can immediately begin
to import the CSV file data into Outlook. First, select File
from the Outlook menu bar, and then choose Import and Export… from
the drop-down menu.
3. In the Import and Export Wizard dialog box, make sure Import
from another program or file is selected. Then click Next.
4. In the Import a File dialog box, select Comma Separated
Values (Windows) and click Next.
5. In the next Import a File dialog box, click on Browse
to find the CSV file, and then click OK. If you do not want to
import any duplicates, make sure Do not import duplicate items
is selected. Then click Next.
6. On the next screen, choose the folder you would like to import the CSV contacts
data into. This is typically your Contacts folder. Then click
Next.
7. On the next dialog box, click on Map Custom Fields…
8. The column headers from CSV file should be mapped to the appropriate Contact
field name. For instance, Name should be under Mapped from
and match the Name field under Value.
If not, you can drag any field name from Value
onto an Outlook Contacts Field in the opposite box.
9. Once everything matches up, click OK and then Finish.
The contacts from the CSV file will now be listed under your Microsoft Outlook Contacts.
Bonus Tip:
Manually mapping values to different fields gives you the authority to assign anything
you wish. For instance, if the value in the CSV file is “Mobile Phone Number,” but
for your contacts this usually means their primary phone number, you can assign
it to the “Primary Phone” field in your Outlook Contacts. This helpful hint can
be applied to any of the values listed under the CSV file.
Look for next month's newsletter, when we share another handy trick for using Outlook.
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