Mac Outlook 2016 - Import Contacts

Anonymous
2015-11-07T08:24:58+00:00

I can't find a straightforward answer on this, so hoping you can help. I want to import a list of contacts in Excel (Mac 2016) into my Outlook (Mac 2016) contacts list. This used to be easy, but I cannot find the functions to do this now. Is this another functionality Microsoft has stripped from Mac Office or is there a way to do it?

Many thanks

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business

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Anonymous
2015-11-09T15:08:29+00:00

You can't import it straight into Outlook, but there is a way around this:

• Export from Excel to a csv file.

• Import the csv file into the System Contact app (it should be fairly

straightforward, especially if all fields are properly labeled).

• Select all contacts there and drag them to the desktop to create a .vcf

• drag the .vcf into the address book where you want them imported in

Outlook.

That should do the trick.

Corentin

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-24T05:04:29+00:00

    You should be able to drop the vcf into your Outlook. I was able to select all of my .vcf files (i saved them out of Entourage) and dragged them directly on top of the words "Address Book" in the left column of the "People" section of Outlook. Have you tried that yet?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-24T07:44:27+00:00

    You can't import it straight into Outlook, but there is a way around this:

    • Export from Excel to a csv file.

    • Import the csv file into the System Contact app (it should be fairly

    straightforward, especially if all fields are properly labeled).

    • Select all contacts there and drag them to the desktop to create a .vcf

    • drag the .vcf into the address book where you want them imported in

    Outlook.

    That should do the trick.

    Corentin

    I am sorry it has taken me a while to reply to this but thank you, this did indeed work for me.

    Why MS chose to make this so complex (Or more likely just didn't bother to make it easy) is beyond me, but this work around gave me the result I wanted.

    Thank you

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-24T21:39:27+00:00

    does my contact have to be empty in order for this to work?

    something has happened to my contact list that every person is in their four times and i was going to basically start over using 3 lists that i've combined into 1. i have the new list in csv and vcf files. dragging the cvs files over the address book hasn't work and i am wondering if i need to delete my entire list in order for the import to work?

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-11-24T22:28:17+00:00

    The contacts list wouldn't have to be empty. I would guess that the repeated contacts may be due to a miss-translation or duplication of info when you combined the lists. I don't think the cvs list will transfer by dragging or importing them in...but the vcf files will. I exported each of my contacts (out of Entourage) as vcf files. Then copied them to my new computer. I selected all of the vcf files and dragged them into my address book of the new Outlook.

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