Convert Excel sheet to a Phone Book

Question

Convert Excel sheet to a Phone Book

Tammy Adams 0

Hi, I would like to take an Excel spreadsheet with about 3000 entries of names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers to a phonebook-type template.

I have done some research, but have not found anything on how to do this. I want the end project to look like two column phone book for our community to find members.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to do this or stear me in the right direction. I will be glad to give more information if needed.

TYIA

Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-28T17:42:26.08+00:00

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

According to your concern, can you share a screenshot of the current structure of your Excel spreadsheet that having phone data so I can clearly understand the situation and provide the most appropriate solution for your request.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. I'm looking forward to your response.
Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-01-28T18:11:09.2+00:00

Here is an example of how my spreadsheet is figured.

Thanks
Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-28T20:04:35.3466667+00:00
Hi @Tammy Adams,

Greatly appreciate your sharing.

If this is your current Excel structure, you can convert all of them into Excel table so it will have the Sort/Filter option to look for the contact easier. You need to select one cell in the data range > press Ctrl+A > press Ctrl + T and select "My table has headers" > press OK. As you can see, the name column now has the filter option so I can find the contact of every individual easily.

I sincerely apologize for not requesting earlier. However, may you share more details about your final expected result:

When you mentioned "two column phone book", can you share what is the structure of your expected result? For example, make this file into a two-column phone book with Full Name (column B) and Information (column C). When inputting a last or first name in the Input cell (e.g. cell A1) it will search and list all the matching information.

Do you expect a printed PDF of this data sheet in phonebook template or just restructure the current Excel file with more dynamic feature for better usage?

Once again, thank you for your cooperation and understanding. With your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-01-28T20:58:20.9+00:00

I made a Word two-column label printing template, if you will, that I think will work. But with about 3000 addresses, this will be a very large Word document. It won't be printed out. I will save the document in a PDF to use with a digital service that I can embed on our website so folks can search and turn the pages like a book.

Here is part of the Word 8.5 x 11 sheet for one page.

I was hoping for an easier way to do this because I'm sure I will have to copy this page enough times to hold 3000 users.

Thanks so much for your time.

2 answers

Your answer

Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-28T17:42:26.08+00:00

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

According to your concern, can you share a screenshot of the current structure of your Excel spreadsheet that having phone data so I can clearly understand the situation and provide the most appropriate solution for your request.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. I'm looking forward to your response.
Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-01-28T18:11:09.2+00:00

Here is an example of how my spreadsheet is figured.

Thanks
Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-28T20:04:35.3466667+00:00

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Greatly appreciate your sharing.

If this is your current Excel structure, you can convert all of them into Excel table so it will have the Sort/Filter option to look for the contact easier. You need to select one cell in the data range > press Ctrl+A > press Ctrl + T and select "My table has headers" > press OK. As you can see, the name column now has the filter option so I can find the contact of every individual easily.

I sincerely apologize for not requesting earlier. However, may you share more details about your final expected result:

When you mentioned "two column phone book", can you share what is the structure of your expected result? For example, make this file into a two-column phone book with Full Name (column B) and Information (column C). When inputting a last or first name in the Input cell (e.g. cell A1) it will search and list all the matching information.

Do you expect a printed PDF of this data sheet in phonebook template or just restructure the current Excel file with more dynamic feature for better usage?

Once again, thank you for your cooperation and understanding. With your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-01-28T20:58:20.9+00:00

I made a Word two-column label printing template, if you will, that I think will work. But with about 3000 addresses, this will be a very large Word document. It won't be printed out. I will save the document in a PDF to use with a digital service that I can embed on our website so folks can search and turn the pages like a book.

Here is part of the Word 8.5 x 11 sheet for one page.

I was hoping for an easier way to do this because I'm sure I will have to copy this page enough times to hold 3000 users.

Thanks so much for your time.

Answer 1

Hendrix-C 19,985 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Thank you for your detailed sharing.

Based on your sharing, you can achieve that by using a Word Mail Merge Directory feature. You can follow these steps below:

1/ Prepare your Excel file

I create a data file as your example. Then select any cell in the data range > press Ctrl+A > press Ctrl + T and select "My table has headers" > press OK. This will make the data range into a Table.
Word merge fields need the headers have non special characters (such as hyphen -) so I suggest you should change the E-Mail field to Email or EMail.

User's image

You can sort your data based on your preference. Word will print in that order.
Then save the Excel file in .csv format (CSV UTF-8 Comma delimited) and close Excel completely.

2/ Set up Word mail merge

Open your Word and go to Mailings tab > Start Mail Merge > I suggest selecting Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard.
On the right side, you will see Dialog box. Select Directory and then Next: Starting document

User's image

On the next window, choose Use the current document and press Next: Select recipients
Select the option Use an existing list and then Browse.. > Select your file prepared in step 1 and then Open.
If you see "Confirm Data Source" window, choose OLE DB Database File and press OK. If another window shows up, choose Comma and OK
You will see an interview like below. The letter before Last Name is a character that got embedded at the start of the CSV file, but it won't affect anything so you can ignore that. Then press OK

User's image

Now select Insert Merge Field then adding and editing the fields based on your preference.

User's image

Then go to Layout tab > Columns and select Two to split the page into two columns. You can also modify other Layout settings there. You can also edit anything like Style, Color, Paragraphs in the Home tab like a normal Word document.
After that, go back to Mailings tab > Finish & Merge > Edit Individual Documents > All > OK and you will have the document like below:

User's image

I hope this helps you move forward smoothly. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please feel free to reach out again on this post. I’ll be happy to continue assisting you.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Looking forward to your response.

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Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-01-29T14:02:48.7166667+00:00

Thank you for all of this and all is good but before I finish I have one more question. Will I need to duplicate the merge fields section for the 3000+ members first? Thanks
Anonymous

2026-01-29T21:43:50.7566667+00:00

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Greatly appreciate your response.

According to your concern, you don't need to duplicate the merge fields section. You just need to add and edit them once like in this picture:

In the last step when selecting Finish & Merge > Edit Individual Documents > All, it will help Word understand you want all the contacts in the list be exported in the edited layout so Word will automatically duplicate the layout and add contact information inside the fields without the need to manually duplicate 3000+ members.

Please don't hesitate to reach out again if you need further assistance. I'm happy to help.
Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-01-30T16:47:38.92+00:00

Thank you for your help. But its still not showing the merge. All it does is spin and I'm sure its because its 3000+ merges.

Thanks again
Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-02T23:36:16.4666667+00:00

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Thank you for your updates.

If the issue is due to large data, have you tried splitting the data into smaller parts and merging them like merging 500 merges at once to see if it works?
Tammy Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-02-03T17:23:40.0366667+00:00

I am thinking about doing it in groups by the alphabet. Hoping that works.

Thanks for all your help
Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-03T20:36:34.11+00:00

Hi @Tammy Adams,

Thank you very much for your update.

If you have any concerns or questions in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Not only will I be happy to assist you, but all moderators in the Q&A forum will also do their best to provide support and guidance.

I hope everything gets sorted out soon.

Wishing you a fantastic day ahead.

Answer 2

To convert your Excel spreadsheet into a phone book-type template, you can follow these general steps:

Organize Your Data: Ensure that your Excel spreadsheet has the necessary columns for names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers. Each entry should be in a separate row.
Format as a Table: In Excel, format your data as a table. This will help in managing the data more effectively. You can do this by selecting your data range and using the "Format as Table" option in the Home tab.
Create a New Sheet for the Phone Book: Open a new sheet in the same workbook where you can design your phone book layout.
Design the Layout: Decide on how you want the phone book to look. Since you want a two-column format, you can set up two columns in the new sheet. You might want to include headers like "Name", "Address", "Email", and "Phone Number".
Copy Data: You can use formulas or copy-paste to transfer the data from your original sheet to the new phone book layout. If you want to automate this, you can write a simple VBA script to pull data from the original sheet and format it into the phone book layout.
Print Setup: Once your phone book is designed, make sure to adjust the print settings to ensure it prints correctly in the two-column format. You can set the page layout to landscape if necessary.
Export or Print: Finally, you can either print the phone book directly from Excel or export it to a PDF format for easier sharing.

If you're looking for a more automated approach, you might consider using a mail merge feature in Word with your Excel data, which can also help in creating a formatted phone book.

These steps should help you get started on creating a phone book from your Excel data. If you need further assistance with specific steps, feel free to ask!