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EXPORT Address Book contacts to Excel?

F

flyingfishgirl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
2
0
NYC
I currently keep all of my contacts in Address Book, and need to create mailing labels from a group of them (I already created and populated the group). If I try to "print labels" from address book, it tries to print a label for every address in the group -- so in cases where a contact has multiple addresses, it wants to print more than one. This process also won't let me edit the labels to modify names, add "Mr. & Mrs." etc.

I want to export the group of contacts to excel, so that I can delete the fields that I don't need for this particular project and then do a mail merge between excel and word, in which I can create the labels. But Address Book and excel don't seem to want to play together.

I downloaded Palm Desktop with the hope that I could use it as a conduit, but it won't accept the group v-card either.

I have searched everywhere for hints, but mostly just come up with hints for importing contacts to address book, and not exporting. I hope someone can help!


Thanks!
 
unknown.exe

unknown.exe

macrumors member
Sep 22, 2007
67
0
Somewhere on Earth
flyingfishgirl said:
I currently keep all of my contacts in Address Book, and need to create mailing labels from a group of them (I already created and populated the group). If I try to "print labels" from address book, it tries to print a label for every address in the group -- so in cases where a contact has multiple addresses, it wants to print more than one. This process also won't let me edit the labels to modify names, add "Mr. & Mrs." etc.

I want to export the group of contacts to excel, so that I can delete the fields that I don't need for this particular project and then do a mail merge between excel and word, in which I can create the labels. But Address Book and excel don't seem to want to play together.

I downloaded Palm Desktop with the hope that I could use it as a conduit, but it won't accept the group v-card either.

I have searched everywhere for hints, but mostly just come up with hints for importing contacts to address book, and not exporting. I hope someone can help!


Thanks!
Click to expand...

Open excel and go to file > inport (i'm pretty sure that's an option on all office apps). Import your address book entries into excel... that's your best advice.:apple:
 
F

flyingfishgirl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
2
0
NYC
unknown.exe said:
Open excel and go to file > inport (i'm pretty sure that's an option on all office apps). Import your address book entries into excel... that's your best advice.:apple:
Click to expand...

Excel doesn't give you that option. I've tried using the "import"option in Enterouge, but it only seems to want to let me import mail or calendar files, and not contact files. Same for Palm Desktop. I also tried the Address Book to CSV exporter utility, but that didn't work.
 
iSaint

iSaint

macrumors 603
May 26, 2004
5,225
2
South Mississippi y'all, near the water!
I'm not going to test it out, but there's an Export option in Address Book that allows you to create an archive. I don't think there's an option to select certain entries to export. I know other database programs such as ACT will do that for you.

Since we only send 80 Christmas cards, and I have 1,200 contacts, I keep a spreadsheet and make changes year to year.

BTW if you do export into a tab delimited file you can import that into Excel with ease.
 
M

mackitlad

macrumors newbie
Sep 3, 2008
2
0
Address Book to CSV Exporter --- not good if you want entries kelp in csv

"Address Book to CSV Exporter 1.3a" tool I mentioned above isn't good if you would like to export contacts to a csv file and preserve it that way because the csv output isn't easy to read in spreadsheet; not sure if it works by splitting the csv to spreadsheet columns based on some separator. The tool download site says that the csv output is good for creating an export csv to later import using gmail's import functionality; however i did not try that out.
Instead, I started using gmail to store all my contact and its csv output goes good in spreadsheet.
 
M

MelRichBan

macrumors newbie
Jun 3, 2010
1
2
Export Vcards into Excel from Address Book

I searched and searched, I downloaded shareware solutions, I tried what Apple recommended on their own website, and finally found the easiest way to overcome this problem by thinking like a MAC user, not a PC user.

Remember that Excel is made by MICROSOFT. So, use your MAC software to create what you need (for me, I needed an Excel file of my contacts as the service I use for email marketing requires this for uploading):

1. Open Mac's Numbers software program.
2. Open Address Book, and click on the group or selection of contacts you need exported.
3. Drag them into an empty spreadsheet into Numbers.
4. If needed, re-save your new Numbers file while in Excel.

Seriously, it is that simple. NO export, NO import, NO headaches.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, don't think like a PC user -- think INTUITIVELY.
 
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C

cavenewt

macrumors newbie
Oct 22, 2007
20
1
Numbers worked great!

MelRichBan:

GREAT suggestion! Highlighting names in AB and dragging them straight to a Numbers spreadsheet works like a charm. And I was looking for a third-party export tool. Fah!
 
Chadest

Chadest

macrumors newbie
Aug 7, 2010
4
0
Nice, but not quite there

MelRichBan's solutions is certainly the easiest and most 'mac-like'.
However it didn't quite work for me. When dragging a card from Address Book (v5.0.2 on OSX 10.6.4) into Numbers 09 (v2.0.3), all I got was Last Name, First Name, mobile phone, and email address.

Does anyone know how to tweak the process to get more data? Such as the address?
Thanks
 
V

vdeg

macrumors newbie
Aug 11, 2010
1
0
Chadest said:
MelRichBan's solutions is certainly the easiest and most 'mac-like'.
However it didn't quite work for me. When dragging a card from Address Book (v5.0.2 on OSX 10.6.4) into Numbers 09 (v2.0.3), all I got was Last Name, First Name, mobile phone, and email address.

Does anyone know how to tweak the process to get more data? Such as the address?
Thanks
Click to expand...

You just need to unhide hidden columns - ALL address book fields are there (more than one needs)
 
A

afh163

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2010
2
0
MelRichBan said:
I searched and searched, I downloaded shareware solutions, I tried what Apple recommended on their own website, and finally found the easiest way to overcome this problem by thinking like a MAC user, not a PC user.

Remember that Excel is made by MICROSOFT. So, use your MAC software to create what you need (for me, I needed an Excel file of my contacts as the service I use for email marketing requires this for uploading):

1. Open Mac's Numbers software program.
2. Open Address Book, and click on the group or selection of contacts you need exported.
3. Drag them into an empty spreadsheet into Numbers.
4. If needed, re-save your new Numbers file while in Excel.

Seriously, it is that simple. NO export, NO import, NO headaches.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, don't think like a PC user -- think INTUITIVELY.
Click to expand...

I tried doing this and it doesn't let me drop into Numbers. The image that I'm dragging over just flies back into Address Book. Any idea why?
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
afh163 said:
I tried doing this and it doesn't let me drop into Numbers. The image that I'm dragging over just flies back into Address Book. Any idea why?
Click to expand...

Make sure you're dropping them directly onto the spreadsheet cells, which will highlight in blue to indicate they are the destination.

jW
 
A

afh163

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2010
2
0
I highlight the cell in Numbers, then go to AB and highlight the contacts (tried doing all at once then opted to try just one contact to see if it worked). No luck. As I drag from AB to Numbers, Numbers is in the background and it doesnt register that I want to drop....

* I figured it out. I had to select contacts under "on my mac" as opposed to the list I was trying to use.
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
Ok, so just tested this. When I just dropped onto a blank spreadsheet, it wanted to create a new table with the information. When I edited the column headers to First Name, Last Name, etc, then it highlighted in blue and let me drop directly onto the table without creating a new one. Both ways, however, it did pull the information from Address Book, and didn't just snap back.


afh163, glad you figured it out, that wasn't the solution I would have suggested, so glad you saved me the trouble of being wrong, too.:cool:

jW
 
C

Celticfaere

macrumors newbie
Mar 31, 2004
4
0
Florida
export to numbers you are brilliant!

This is brilliant!!! KISS--keep it simple stupid we forget what we love about mac sometimes.

Remember that Excel is made by MICROSOFT. So, use your MAC software to create what you need (for me, I needed an Excel file of my contacts as the service I use for email marketing requires this for uploading):

1. Open Mac's Numbers software program.
2. Open Address Book, and click on the group or selection of contacts you need exported.
3. Drag them into an empty spreadsheet into Numbers.
4. If needed, re-save your new Numbers file while in Excel.

Seriously, it is that simple. NO export, NO import, NO headaches.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, don't think like a PC user -- think INTUITIVELY.[/QUOTE]
 
R

rocklifter

macrumors newbie
Mar 25, 2008
3
0
Many Thanks

Worked like a charm. Thanks for the neat trick! You've make me look good for the boss.

:D

MelRichBan said:
I searched and searched, I downloaded shareware solutions, I tried what Apple recommended on their own website, and finally found the easiest way to overcome this problem by thinking like a MAC user, not a PC user.

Remember that Excel is made by MICROSOFT. So, use your MAC software to create what you need (for me, I needed an Excel file of my contacts as the service I use for email marketing requires this for uploading):

1. Open Mac's Numbers software program.
2. Open Address Book, and click on the group or selection of contacts you need exported.
3. Drag them into an empty spreadsheet into Numbers.
4. If needed, re-save your new Numbers file while in Excel.

Seriously, it is that simple. NO export, NO import, NO headaches.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, don't think like a PC user -- think INTUITIVELY.
Click to expand...
 
montycat

montycat

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2007
450
143
Florida
MelRichBan said:
I searched and searched, I downloaded shareware solutions, I tried what Apple recommended on their own website, and finally found the easiest way to overcome this problem by thinking like a MAC user, not a PC user.

Remember that Excel is made by MICROSOFT. So, use your MAC software to create what you need (for me, I needed an Excel file of my contacts as the service I use for email marketing requires this for uploading):

1. Open Mac's Numbers software program.
2. Open Address Book, and click on the group or selection of contacts you need exported.
3. Drag them into an empty spreadsheet into Numbers.
4. If needed, re-save your new Numbers file while in Excel.

Seriously, it is that simple. NO export, NO import, NO headaches.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, don't think like a PC user -- think INTUITIVELY.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info
 
G

GRaysman

macrumors newbie
Jan 28, 2011
1
0
This was the BEST advice! I created a Christmas Card List of 65 names within a half hour, including formatting the Numbers page, colors, fonts, etc. Thank you so much!



MelRichBan said:
I searched and searched, I downloaded shareware solutions, I tried what Apple recommended on their own website, and finally found the easiest way to overcome this problem by thinking like a MAC user, not a PC user.

Remember that Excel is made by MICROSOFT. So, use your MAC software to create what you need (for me, I needed an Excel file of my contacts as the service I use for email marketing requires this for uploading):

1. Open Mac's Numbers software program.
2. Open Address Book, and click on the group or selection of contacts you need exported.
3. Drag them into an empty spreadsheet into Numbers.
4. If needed, re-save your new Numbers file while in Excel.

Seriously, it is that simple. NO export, NO import, NO headaches.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, don't think like a PC user -- think INTUITIVELY.
Click to expand...
 
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