Cannot import OE contacts into Outlook2003

[Guest]

Finally broke down and bought Office 2003. Installed smoothly, transfered
all msgs just fine. Tried to get my Contacts over to Outlook and hit a
roadblock.

I tried both methods listed in the Help function that took me to Office
Online: Import the OE Contacts into the Outlook Contacts folder, as well as
Exporting the OE Contacts to a Personal Address Book (intending to then
follow the directions for Converting your Personal Address Book to a Contacts
folder)... neither worked.

From there, I found the KB article 273796, which exactly describes my error
msgs.

Now the problem is in the Resolution of that article. It says to click on
Services under Tools... I am not finding Services in either OE or Outlook.

What am I missing here? Could somebody please tell me how to get my
Contacts from OE into Outlook?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Smora

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That article is outdated and has nothing to do with Outlook 2003. Outlook
has not used a PAB for over 7 years.
State how you tried to import OE's Contacts and what happened when you
tried. That is what you should do. It works.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Russ, I originally put each step that I took in this post, but
revised it because it was a bit lengthy.

First, from within Outlook, I clicked on File > Import and Export, which
brings up the wizard. Clicked on Import Internet Mail and Addresses, selected
Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x. Made sure only Import Address Book was
checked. Selected Do Not Import Duplicate Items. Result is an Import
Summary that says 0 of 0 addresses imported and 0 of 0 dl's imported. (This
was the same wizard that I used to import e-mail messages and it worked great
for that) I also noted that this was the recommended method for transfering
conacts as the Contacts folder in Outlook had more functionality than the
PAB. I only tried the second method after this one failed.

These are the steps that came directly from the Help menu in Outlook 2003:
"Add the Personal Address Book to Outlook if it isn't already there.
How?

In Outlook, on the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select Add a new directory or address book, and then click Next.
Select Additional Address Books, and then click Next.
Select Personal Address Book, and then click Next.
Note If you receive the error message This account or directory already
exists and cannot be specified twice, click OK, click Cancel, and then skip
to step 2.

In the Name box, type a name that is easy for you to associate with the
Personal Address Book. For example, you can call it Imported Outlook Express
Contacts.
Under Show names by, select Last name (Smith, John), and then click OK.
This will file your contacts in the same way that Outlook displays contacts
by default.

Quit and restart Outlook.
On the Tools menu, click Address Book.
In the Address Book dialog box, on the Tools menu, click Options.
Under Keep personal addresses in, select the name you provided for the
Personal Address Book in step 5, for example, Imported Outlook Express
Contacts.
Click OK.
In Outlook Express, on the File menu, point to Export, and then click
Address Book.
Click Microsoft Exchange Personal Address Book, and then click Export. "

At this point I got the error msg : "The WAB is currently unable to perform
this export. Make sure you have a PAB set up in Outlook and that it is set as
your current personal address book."

Then I get: "Address Book process has completed"... still no contacts.

One last thing, I also did go into Tools > Address Book >Tools > Options and
under Keep Personal Addresses In, I did select the name of the PAB I had
added (in above instructions)

Now, believe me, Russ, I spent my entire Saturday trying to figure this out.
I am one of those that doesn't like coming here to bother you guys unless I
absolutely don't know where else to turn. So I do appreciate any light you
can shed. In my reading on this group, I have understood you to say several
times that OE and O 2003 are two different critters and that there is no
importing/transfering between the two. Or did I misunderstand you?

Thanks again, Stephanie

That article is outdated and has nothing to do with Outlook 2003. Outlook
has not used a PAB for over 7 years.
State how you tried to import OE's Contacts and what happened when you
tried. That is what you should do. It works.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Finally broke down and bought Office 2003. Installed smoothly, transfered
all msgs just fine. Tried to get my Contacts over to Outlook and hit a
roadblock.

I tried both methods listed in the Help function that took me to Office
Online: Import the OE Contacts into the Outlook Contacts folder, as well
as
Exporting the OE Contacts to a Personal Address Book (intending to then
follow the directions for Converting your Personal Address Book to a
Contacts
folder)... neither worked.

From there, I found the KB article 273796, which exactly describes my
error
msgs.

Now the problem is in the Resolution of that article. It says to click on
Services under Tools... I am not finding Services in either OE or Outlook.

What am I missing here? Could somebody please tell me how to get my
Contacts from OE into Outlook?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Smora

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Nowhere have we posted that you can't import from OE into Outlook.
The first method you used works fine for everyone else. You'll need to look
at your own setup to determine why it doesn't work for you. For example, are
you certain that your OE installation on the same partition has Contacts
stored in its default folder?

The second method is the one you should abandon. There is simply no reason
to use a PAB as an intermediary for importing from OE.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thank you Russ, I originally put each step that I took in this post, but
revised it because it was a bit lengthy.

First, from within Outlook, I clicked on File > Import and Export, which
brings up the wizard. Clicked on Import Internet Mail and Addresses,
selected
Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x. Made sure only Import Address Book was
checked. Selected Do Not Import Duplicate Items. Result is an Import
Summary that says 0 of 0 addresses imported and 0 of 0 dl's imported.
(This
was the same wizard that I used to import e-mail messages and it worked
great
for that) I also noted that this was the recommended method for
transfering
conacts as the Contacts folder in Outlook had more functionality than the
PAB. I only tried the second method after this one failed.

These are the steps that came directly from the Help menu in Outlook 2003:
"Add the Personal Address Book to Outlook if it isn't already there.
How?

In Outlook, on the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select Add a new directory or address book, and then click Next.
Select Additional Address Books, and then click Next.
Select Personal Address Book, and then click Next.
Note If you receive the error message This account or directory already
exists and cannot be specified twice, click OK, click Cancel, and then
skip
to step 2.

In the Name box, type a name that is easy for you to associate with the
Personal Address Book. For example, you can call it Imported Outlook
Express
Contacts.
Under Show names by, select Last name (Smith, John), and then click OK.
This will file your contacts in the same way that Outlook displays
contacts
by default.

Quit and restart Outlook.
On the Tools menu, click Address Book.
In the Address Book dialog box, on the Tools menu, click Options.
Under Keep personal addresses in, select the name you provided for the
Personal Address Book in step 5, for example, Imported Outlook Express
Contacts.
Click OK.
In Outlook Express, on the File menu, point to Export, and then click
Address Book.
Click Microsoft Exchange Personal Address Book, and then click Export. "

At this point I got the error msg : "The WAB is currently unable to
perform
this export. Make sure you have a PAB set up in Outlook and that it is set
as
your current personal address book."

Then I get: "Address Book process has completed"... still no contacts.

One last thing, I also did go into Tools > Address Book >Tools > Options
and
under Keep Personal Addresses In, I did select the name of the PAB I had
added (in above instructions)

Now, believe me, Russ, I spent my entire Saturday trying to figure this
out.
I am one of those that doesn't like coming here to bother you guys unless
I
absolutely don't know where else to turn. So I do appreciate any light you
can shed. In my reading on this group, I have understood you to say
several
times that OE and O 2003 are two different critters and that there is no
importing/transfering between the two. Or did I misunderstand you?

Thanks again, Stephanie

That article is outdated and has nothing to do with Outlook 2003. Outlook
has not used a PAB for over 7 years.
State how you tried to import OE's Contacts and what happened when you
tried. That is what you should do. It works.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Finally broke down and bought Office 2003. Installed smoothly,
transfered
all msgs just fine. Tried to get my Contacts over to Outlook and hit a
roadblock.

I tried both methods listed in the Help function that took me to Office
Online: Import the OE Contacts into the Outlook Contacts folder, as
well
as
Exporting the OE Contacts to a Personal Address Book (intending to then
follow the directions for Converting your Personal Address Book to a
Contacts
folder)... neither worked.

From there, I found the KB article 273796, which exactly describes my
error
msgs.

Now the problem is in the Resolution of that article. It says to click
on
Services under Tools... I am not finding Services in either OE or
Outlook.

What am I missing here? Could somebody please tell me how to get my
Contacts from OE into Outlook?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Smora

 

[Brian Tillman]

First, from within Outlook, I clicked on File > Import and Export,
which brings up the wizard. Clicked on Import Internet Mail and
Addresses, selected Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x. Made sure only
Import Address Book was checked. Selected Do Not Import Duplicate
Items

..
This is exactly the correct method. If nothing imported, then I'd look to
your Outlook Express setup . State how the address book is configured
there. Are you using more than one identity? Are the contacts in
subfolders?

 

[Guest]

Russ:
Of course it works for everybody else. My father recently made the same
changes (OE to O 2003) and he imported everything without a hitch. (although
his methods involved creating a PST folder???) At any rate, I do understand
that there are so many different variables introduced by the end user that
causes software to not behave the same way for everybody. This is the reason
for these newsgroups and such highly intelligent people as yourself... to
help the idiots (like myself) to troubleshoot what variables we may have
brought into play that affect the task we are trying to accomplish.
Additionally, if the second method is so archaic, perhaps MS should "abandon"
putting it in their help menus. hmmmm?
Thanks for trying.

Brian:
Thank you so much for replying. I am pretty sure that I am using only one
identity (I played around with the notion of adding more about 3 yrs ago and
don't think I ever followed through)

Whenever a contact is added it defaults into the Main Identity's Contacts
folder, and then I move it into a subfolder (Friends, Family, Business, etc)
so there is actually 0 items in the Main Identity's folder. I also have a
"group" for Scouts, although I meant to make that a subfolder like the others
and for some reason it is in a Shared Contacts folder (the only thing in the
Shared folder) Again, I meant to make that a folder under Main Identity's
Contacts.

Now, it seems to me my Dad had issues with getting all of his subfolders
imported into O 2003. I do not remember any option in the Import Wizard
concerning subfolders.

So do I need to change my configuration? If so, would you be able to give
the steps I need to take? Do I have to eliminate the subfolder hierarchy?

Thank you, Stephanie

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

My post already answered your question.
I told you that Contacts must reside in the Main Folder in OE. No other
Contacts will be imported.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Whenever a contact is added it defaults into the Main Identity's
Contacts folder, and then I move it into a subfolder (Friends,
Family, Business, etc) so there is actually 0 items in the Main
Identity's folder. I also have a "group" for Scouts, although I
meant to make that a subfolder like the others and for some reason it
is in a Shared Contacts folder (the only thing in the Shared folder)
Again, I meant to make that a folder under Main Identity's Contacts.

I think this is why you can't import any contacts. I don't think the Import
wizard looks in subfolders, only the main folder. Move everything back
there and try again.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Brian, for your friendly and courteous assistance. This did the
trick for me. My Dad somehow got all of his subfolders to switch over. I will
have to rebuild mine, but this is not a too big of a deal as my contacts
aren't as numerous as his. Thanks again.

Steph