Move an address book from Outlook to OSX
One question I see asked all over the place by switchers is how to move an address book from Outlook on Windows to Address Book in OSX. I've seen utilities and scripts out there that claim to do it, but I've never had or heard of much luck with them. If you're in the same boat, a post over at macosxhints.com lays out a down and dirty method using Mozilla's address book and Excel to shuffle all your contacts from Outlook into an LDIF format that OSX's Address Book can import.Sounds nasty I know, but if you've been having issues like this and have all but given up - this could be your contacts' last hope. If anyone gives this a whirl, (I switched years ago) please feel free to post your experience.
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One question I see asked all over the place by switchers is how to move an address book from Outlook on Windows to Address Book in OSX....
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I did basically the same thing, but instead of using the Mozilla suite, I used the address book that comes with Thunderbird. Finally I got rid of the Outlook nuisance and use Thunderbird on my PC and Mail on my Mac.
September 06 2005 at 10:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyA pretty simple solution for me was to sync Outlook to Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com) and then export from Plaxo for the Mac. Worked perfectly for me and would probably also work for calendar data too.
September 04 2005 at 1:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replydepending on how many contacts, you can also drag a lot of info into ADDRESS BOOK ...
September 04 2005 at 12:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyiFelix that's pure genius! While I know not all phones can hold ALL of a contact's info, like addresses, birthdays, etc, that is a great method I've never thought of. Good show!
September 03 2005 at 5:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHave you tried my ABFiller utility that I wrote a while ago and released for free? I haven't kept it too up-to-date since I got readpst working at the command-line. That said, people still email me saying how great it worked for them. More details here: http://www.supermegaultragroovy.com/ABFiller
September 03 2005 at 4:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI use my phone, sync with the PC and then sync with the Mac. Quick and easy.
September 03 2005 at 4:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhen my wife "switched," I think we used the deliminated file for her address book. However, I remember e-mails being the real pain. We installed Thunderbird on her windows laptop, imported everything, and then used the standard e-mail files to bring into mail. It was almost painless. However, after the fact, I agree that using a relatively cheap program such as Outlook2Mac. Spend $10 and make your life easier.
September 03 2005 at 1:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI struggled for a long time as well when I switched earlier this year, until I found a great $10 utility called outlook2mac (http://www.littlemachines.com/). It did not only easily transfer my contacts, but my mail data as well, which as well all know is a much more difficult task otherwise.... With this tool it only took me a few clicks and a few minutes, and I had all my info in mail.app....
September 03 2005 at 1:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt is possible to use VBA in outlook (windows) to export all your contacts to vCard format and drop them into address book. I modified a script to sync outlook to an iPod, details here: http://drnoble.co.uk/archives/2005-06-19/migrating-contacts-from-outlook-xp-to-the-os-x-address-book/
September 03 2005 at 1:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAll you have to do is to export your Outlook address to a tab delineated text file, as opposed to comma delineated,download an app called Address Book Importer - think it's freeware - follow the directions in the readme file and, even with some miscues, you'll be good to go in five minutes. http://homepage.mac.com/sroy/addressbookimporter/index.html
September 03 2005 at 12:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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