Importing Excel without losing most of the contact data

[Bob]

I am using Excel 2003. I am trying to import an Excel csv file (containing
contacts) into Outlook 2003. From there I will export it to a website
that will maintain these contacts for me and allow me access. I am following
their instructions:

In order to preserve all the contact information I want before exporting to
the website, I must import into Outlook with the column headers adjusted on
the spreadsheet. However, when I adjust the headers and go to save the file I
get the following message:

[file] may contain features that are not compatable with csv (comma
delimited). Do you want to keep the workbook in this format? To keep this
format which leaves out incompatible features, click Yes. To preserve the
format, click No and then save in the latest Excel format. To see what might
be lost, click Help.

When I click yes, the heading formatting disappears (headers are no longer
adjusted).
When I save in the latest Excel format, the file is not available when I go
to import it into Outlook (it doesn't appear in the list of files available).

When I import the file without the header adjustment, all I get is the name
and phone number of each contact, not the address, second phone, etc. Thanks
for reading this and helping.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

#1 - You don't specify what exactly it is meant by the term "adjust" (or
your reference to "formatting" column field names) so impossible to provide
any tangible and specific comments.

#2 - When saving an Excel worksheet to CSV, the message you get is normal
and answer should be "Yes" (leave out incompatible features)

That said, if all your columns have a field name, than you can always import
those columns into Outlook simply by explicitly mapping each field using the
field name that already exists with no changes to them so not sure why you
would have to alter those names. If by "adjusting" and/or "formatting" you
mean that you need to add a field (column) name (any column name will do),
than just add those and save the worksheet which under normal circumstances
should work just fine for importing the file into Outlook.

One of the most common useless and unncessary steps people are advised to do
is to change Excel column names (or column fields names in whatever file
format is to be imported) to match those used by Outlook prior to importing.
The only reason that would be required is if one wanted to let Outlook
"auto-map" field names for importing which at the best of times should not
be done (great way for things not to work exactly the way you want or
expect). It only takes a few seconds/minutes to explicitly map each field
you want to import. No reason to let Outlook "decide for you" since most
people don't bother to check to see if the auto-map process did everything
correctly. Map each field yourself and you are sure that everything is
getting included correctly (if Outlook has already correctly mapped fields
when you go through the manual process - than just less fields for you to
map).

Out of curiousity, what is the reason that you first need to import your
contacts to Outlook and than export that same info to a file in order to
"export to a website" (format of export file is supposed to be???? ).
Exactly what is meant by "export from Outlook TO a website" (unless of
course the website has functionality to extract your contact info directly
from Outlook in which case it all makes sense - at least for this portion of
the your requirement).

Karl
___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

I am using Excel 2003. I am trying to import an Excel csv file (containing
contacts) into Outlook 2003. From there I will export it to a website
that will maintain these contacts for me and allow me access. I am
following
their instructions:

In order to preserve all the contact information I want before exporting
to
the website, I must import into Outlook with the column headers adjusted
on
the spreadsheet. However, when I adjust the headers and go to save the
file I
get the following message:

[file] may contain features that are not compatable with csv (comma
delimited). Do you want to keep the workbook in this format? To keep this
format which leaves out incompatible features, click Yes. To preserve the
format, click No and then save in the latest Excel format. To see what
might
be lost, click Help.

When I click yes, the heading formatting disappears (headers are no longer
adjusted).
When I save in the latest Excel format, the file is not available when I
go
to import it into Outlook (it doesn't appear in the list of files
available).

When I import the file without the header adjustment, all I get is the
name
and phone number of each contact, not the address, second phone, etc.
Thanks
for reading this and helping.