If you export an Outlook Express Address Book as a Text File (Comma Separated Values) file, you will see the following fields below separated by a comma, hence the name Comma Separated Values.
First Name,Last Name,Middle Name,Name,Nickname,E-mail Address,Home Street,Home City,Home Postal Code,Home State,Home Country,Home Phone,Home Fax,Mobile Phone,Personal Web Page,Business Street,Business City,Business Postal Code,Business State,Business Country,Business Web Page,Business Phone,Business Fax,Pager,Company,Job Title,Department,Office Location,Notes
The file can be opened with Notepad or any text editor. If you look at the lines, you would see:
OE OH,,,OE OH,,oe_oh@mindspring.com,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
You have a First Name followed by a comma, an empty field which would be the Last Name, another comma followed by another empty field followed by a comma then the Middle Name field and so on. If a field is left empty, there is still a comma added as a place holder and after the last field there is an ending comma. That's today's lesson on a comma separated values text file, be prepared, there may be a pop quiz later :-)
We'll start with an example by exporting a Netscape Communicator Communicator 4.7 Address Book then import it into Outlook Express. I do find it interesting that you can only import into Netscape 6's Address Book and can not export.
Open Netscape Communicator 4.7Address Book
File | Export
In the Export As.. dialog box, change the Save as type: to Comma Separated (*.csv)
Netscape does not include the fields (First Name, Last Name, etc) in the .csv file so to utilize it, you will have to change the mapping to correspond to the correct fields for Outlook Express.
As you can see, there are some differences in not only field names but also locations.
| Netscape CSV | Change Mapping To | Outlook Express CSV | ||
| Display Name | Name | First Name | ||
| Last Name | Last Name | Last Name | ||
| First Name | First Name | Middle Name | ||
| Notes | Notes | Name | ||
| City | Home or Business City | Nickname | ||
| State | Home or Business State | E-mail Address | ||
| E-mail Address | Home Street | |||
| Title | Job Title | Home City | ||
| <empty field> | Home Postal Code | |||
| Address | Home Street | Home State | ||
| Zip | Home or Business Postal Code | Home Country | ||
| Country | Home or Business Country | Home Phone | ||
| Work | Business Phone | Home Fax | ||
| Fax | Home or Business Fax | Mobile Phone | ||
| Home Phone | Home Phone | Personal Web Page | ||
| Organization | Company | Business Street | ||
| Nickname | Nickname | Business City | ||
| Cellular | Mobile Phone | Business Postal Code | ||
| Pager | Pager | Business State | ||
| Business Country | ||||
| Business Web Page | ||||
| Business Phone | ||||
| Business Fax | ||||
| Pager | ||||
| Company |
| Job Title | ||||
| Department | ||||
| Office Location | ||||
| Notes |
Import a Netscape Communicator 4.7 CSV
Open Address Book and select the File menu.
Select Import then Other Address Book.
Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) and press the Import button.
Now, you can type in the folder location of the CSV file or press Browse to navigate to the file.
Select the Netscape Address Book.csv (used in this example) and press the Open button.
Press the NEXT button..
Here you are given the fields to import. Above is an Address Book from Netscape that had the field names entered instead of the real data.
Below is what you will see when you import a Netscape Address Book with limited data. At the bottom of this page, I have the fields set up that you can copy and paste into the CSV file. Just paste it in at the very top of the file.
Empty fields are named for the column they occupy. You then get to map each field to the appropriate field for Outlook Express's Address Book. If only they had added the field names it would be so much easier.
Click on a field you wish to change the mapping on.
The Change Mapping dialog appears.
In this example, we've selected the City field.
Click on the drop down list and select Business City
Check the box to Import this field.
And then it returns you to the CSV Import dialog. You can change the mapping on additional fields if you wish or click on the Finish button to begin the import.
When done, press the OK button.
And finally, the Close button to close the Import dialog.
If you wish, I have the fields for Netscape listed below. Just copy and paste them into the top of the CSV file and it should make importing a bit easier.
Display Name,Last Name,First Name,Notes ,City,State,email address,Title,,Address,Zip,Country,Work,Fax,Home,Organization,Nickname,Cellular,Pager,