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Open Contacts

 

Import Contacts Info from other Sources

In the Tools menu, you will find commands of importing from MS Outlook, Outlook Express (WAB file), Eudora, CSV/Excel, Netscape/Mozilla/Thunderbird, vCard, LDIF, Windows Vista Contacts and XML. For any of the sources of importing, you will have an option of dropping imported contacts into categories after importing.

Most existing address book programs do not have concept of separating people and organizations and linking them. After importing these contacts, you may convert selected people which should be organizations to organizations. And you may convert selected organizations to people if mistakes were made.

In addition, you may refer to the mappings of importing, which can be customized if you have basic knowledge of XML.

Import from MS Outlook

The details of an imported contact will be grouped into multiple sections: Home, Work and Other. Only data fields with data in MS Outlook's contact address book will be imported. The mapping between Outlook data fields and Open Contacts is defined in an XML template "templates\ImportOutlook.xml", thus the mapping is customizable if desired. When importing from MS Outlook, you have an option of letting Open Contacts import categories (groups) of each contact. The categories will be created at the first level of the category tree.

If a contact item has no name but company name, the item will be imported into companies.

Notes:

MS Outlook 2003 or above will ask you a question before Open Contacts could talk to the address book of Outlook. Please allow access for at least 1 minute.

If MS Outlook 2002 or above is incorporated with MS Exchange Server, some of the Email addresses of internal recipients could be of Exchange type. In this case, Open Contacts will ask you to input a domain name of Email addresses of your company.

Note: If a contact item has no name but company name, the item will be imported into companies.

Import from CSV

In Open Contacts, data fields are grouped in sections, therefore, You need to define the mapping between CSV data columns and Open Contacts data fields. The mapping will be saved in an XML file. If you have Excel files, please save them as CSV files before proceeding.

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Step 1: Analyze the CSV file

You can use either a text editor or MS Excel to view the CSV file.

If you use a text editor, the file might look like the following example exported from Mozilla Firefox.

If you use MS Excel, the file might look like the following screenshot.

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Step 2: Define the mapping between columns of the CSV file and Fields of Open Contacts

Run command [Main menu -> Tools -> Import -> CSV -> Add CSV Import Template], you will get the following window.

In this example, column 3 will be mapped to field "Display Name", column 1 to "Givenname", and column 24 to "Title" etc. After pressing OK you may map columns into fields of sections.

In this window, you will add sections and fields as you can do in the edit window of a contact. The difference is, that you input the numbers of columns in the CSV file. To remove/ignore a field/section, you may simply clear the field/section name. You may then press OK to save the settings into an XML file.

Step 3: Import from the CSV with predefined mapping

Run command [Main menu -> Tools -> Import -> CSV -> From CSV], you will get the following screen.

Firstly load the XML file with predefined mapping, then load the CSV file, then do the import.

If you find something wrong, or want to re-import the CSV file, you can undo last imported contacts.

Hints:

Open Contacts comes with an import template for CSV files exported from Netscape, Mozilla or Thunderbird, stored in folder "ImportExamples" under the program folder.

Import from vCard

You may select multiple vCard files of a folder to import. Please be aware that info of mailing labels of a vCard will not be imported.

Note: Open Contacts can export multiple contacts into a vCard file, and import a vCard file containing many vCard records.

Import from MS Outlook Express

You may import from the default address book of Outlook Express or from a WAB file.

Import from Windows Vista Contacts

Windows Vista Contacts are stored in separated text files coded in XML. These files are by default stored in the Contacts directory of current user profile. To import, simply drag selected files into the box and press the import button.

Import from Eudora

During importing each book of Eudora's address book, you will have an option to create new category, and then you can apply categories to imported contacts right away. Or, you may let Open Contacts create a category for each book automatically with the book name.

The mapping is defined in an XML template "templates\ImportEudora.xml".

Import from Netscape/Mozilla/Thunderbird

Before importing, please open Address Book of Netscape/Mozilla/Thunderbird and export contacts into a LDIF file.

Then you run the Import wizard to load the LDIF file and then import. The default template file of mapping fields between Open Contacts and the LDIF is ImportNetscapeMozillaThunderbird.xml in the Templates folder.

Import from LDIF

You need to define the mapping between Open Contacts' fields and the LDIF's fields. Please refer to ImportNetscapeMozillaThunderbird.xml in the Templates folder for details. When importing, the program will use the template file loaded to do the mapping.

Import from XML

After getting an XML file exported from another address book database managed by Open Contacts, you may import the XML file to add contact info into your address book.

If a contact in the XML file exists in your database (identified by Name), Open Contacts will prompt you a list of options of further processing: Update, Change name, Skip and Stop.

If you choose "Update", the Title field and the single-line fields will be updated or added, and the name fields and the notes fields will keep their contents unchanged.

The XML file might contain info of categories, relationships and setting etc., the importing may overwrite such info in the targeted database. Please refer to charter Export for more details.

References