Kevin Cullis: How to Start a Business Mac Version

As an entrepreneur on a Mac I recently received over 700 contacts to add to my contact database in Address Book, but they were not in the usual vCard format that it likes to take natively. So, I had to see what it takes to get it done.

After reading a few sites I found that Address Book takes csv (comma-separated value), LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format), and tab-delimited files under the File > Import menu function.

However, there are some steps that need to be done before you embark on a one step process.

1. Ensure your data is up-to-date. Make sure that the data you’re exporting to Address Book is up-to-date.
2. Export the contact data. From the File > Save As… function of a spreadsheet  or File > Export  in most database programs, export the data into a file. Export the contact names into one of the three formats that Address Book takes: csv (comma separated value), tab-delimited, or LDIF.
3. Verify the contact data. When you get an exported file you need to check the field names in the headers against the ones Address Book uses. Address Book has the names of the fields, such as “work address” or “cell phone,” that might be different from the exported file headers (a spreadsheet row) where it might say “business address” or “mobile phone.” Whatever the case, open the file in a spreadsheet and make the necessary changes in the header row to reflect what Address Book has. Otherwise, your data will not import completely or correctly. Also, delete all other rows or data records that are not needed.
4. Add a Note for Address  Book now. When importing a number of contacts it is best to add a note in the Notes section for Address Book and you to remember, such as where and when you got the data from. Add a column in the spreadsheet titles “Note” and add the short note such as “Joe’s data, 08/15/10″ and repeat it for all of the rows.
5. Save the file as csv or tab-delimited. Once you have checked your data and added a note you can save the file.
6. Open Address Book and import. Now you need to open Address Book and go to File > Import and select the file to import.
7. Check field names. Here is where you line up Address Book’s field names with the header of the file to ensure that they are the same. The address field is the only field that has multiple fields of “street,” “State,” and “Zip” for “home” or “work” address. If your fields do not show up correctly, repeat step 3 above. Also go through some of your records to double check your work.
8. Click OK. Clicking on the OK button will now import your contacts.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions you’d like to have answered.

When it comes to dealing with your contact information there are a lot of programs that you have to share information with, but often sharing information, especially contact information, is not so straight forward when it comes to a Mac’s Address Book. While Address Book’s vCard is an industry standard, sometimes you need to do a little bit of tweaking to get the Address Book info just right into another program such as a database or spreadsheet.

I have found an answer to this problem, Export Address Book 1.5.1. These scripts programmed using Apple’s technologies allows you to export anything and everything from your Address Book and to customize the output fields just the way you like it. The developer has done a great job with this solution and up to this date, is the best solution for getting the data out of Address Book and into a file that anyone and any program can read and import into the program of choice.

While some entrepreneurs may be “overwhelmed” with the options if you “Select All” with everything it is pretty straight forward to get the data to the person that needs the info.