Exporting a CSV file from Outlook 2010

[hlewton]

I am trying to import a windows CSV contacts file into the WEB Mail site that is where I download all my email into my Outlook 2010 account. I have used the Export in Outlook to create a “A Comma Separated Values (Windows)” file. Since I am exporting it from Outlook I made the assumption it was an MS Outlook (.CSV) file which is one of the options in the WEB mail import dropdown menu to choose from. The other options are:
MS Outlook Express (.CSV)
Palm Desktop (.CSV)
Netscape 7 (.CSV)
Webedge 3 (.CSV)
Webedge 2 (.CSV)

So once again I believed I had created an "Outlook" Comma Separated Values (Windows) file but when I imported it into the address book of the Web mail site in place of the Name field it put the email address and it also put the email address into the email address field. Also in doing this for some reason it seems to list the last entries in my Outlook address book as being first in the imported one in the Web mail address book.

In looking closer at the Contact.csv file I used Outlook to create when highlighting it in Windows Explorer it says it is an Excel Comma Separated Values file. Given the choices I listed above at the Web Mail site to import and the choices that Outlook 2010 gives me to export a file to as seen in the attachment what should I do to get the file imported correctly into my Web Mail site?

BTW I have looked at the exported Contact.CSV file in Excel and it shows all the fields including the name field correctly.

Thanks

Export.jpg

[HansV]

Which webmail service do you use?

[hlewton]

Actually it is one specific to my ISP. The address is https://webmail.roadrunner.com/

[HansV]

I'm afraid I can't help you. According to all information I can find, RoadRunner and related webmail services should be able to import .csv files exported from Outlook. It's impossible for me to know why it failed for you. Sorry.

[hlewton]

Thanks Hans I ran into the same thing. When I have an hour to kill and feel like trying to make sense of what their support is saying I believe I will give them a call and see if they have an answer but I'm betting they won't.

[hlewton]

Just trying to get a better understanding of what I am talking about if I get ahold of a support tech that can help me. If I do as I say I am doing and exporting a contact.csv file from within Outlook 2010 why does it show up in Windows Explorer as a MS Excel Comma Separated Values file? Are they really the same or is there a difference in them. If so how would I export an Outlook contact.csv file as I thought I was doing? I do not see anything I can do differently from what I am doing when exporting the file.

[HansV]

CSV means comma-separated values. If you have Excel installed, Windows recognizes a .csv file as an Excel comma-separated values file, but that only means that the file will open in Excel if you double-click it. It doesn't make any difference to the actual contents of the file.

[hlewton]

OK thanks.

[hlewton]

Just kind of an update with noting accomplished at all. I wasted almost an hour and a half on the phone today with tech support waiting on hold most of the time while the tech was working with an engineer and going back and forth with me. After over an hour he cut me off but did return the call to me only to once again put me on hold and after 15 more minutes someone in India, I believe, picked up and had no idea what was going on and no way to get me in touch with the original tech in the USA I was working with. She put me on hold for over 6 minutes at which time I got disgusted and hung up. They never did call me back to give me any resolution to my problem.

While on hold I did discover that their WEB site when importing the CSV file was not using the name field's data from Outlook's exported file to fill the Name Field in the WEB site's address book. It was using the Outlook's Display As: filed to fill it's Name Field which, I believe, is the reason that the email address appeared there as well as in the email address field. What I am saying is in Outlook the name filed may say - John Doe, the file as field will say Doe, John and supposing his email address is doe123@gmail.com the display as field will say John Doe (doe123@gmail.com) which is the field RR's WEB site uses as the Name Field. So I believe the problem is on their end, I believe they now know it, but I have no idea what they intend to do about it. I was too disgusted to initiate another call to them today because I didn't have another hour and a half to waste. I may try again tomorrow because I see no easy resolution on my end. By the way the same Contact.CSV file when imported into a Yahoo WEB mail site imports perfectly.

[hlewton]

Reporting the “final resolution” so far.

After calling back and spending another hour on the phone doing some experimenting with the tech as this one again consulted an engineer we came up with deleting all the contacts at the WEB site and then while still at the WEB site adding a new contact. So the WEB site’s address book had 1 contact in it. Then that address book was exported to a CSV file and I looked at within Excel to see what fields it needed to display the contacts I wanted to use from my Outlook CSV file correctly. I kind of already knew what it needed because as I reported earlier the WEB site’s address book seemed to be using the “Display as” field from Outlook’s files as its name field. Anyway the above experiment confirmed this. Once that was done I copied the data from the Last Name column in Outlook’s CSV file and pasted into the Display As column, saved the file in Excel and then once more imported it into the WEB site’s address book and now all is well. Seems like a long way around to get to where it should be but that seems to be the fault of my ISP’s WEB site and the way they import the data. They so much as admitted this to me and even confirmed that an “Outlook CSV file” imports properly into other WEB mail site’s address books, as I think I also earlier mentioned.

They also said, and here is why I have a question or two, that their WEB site does import Outlook Express’s CSV file correctly. Didn’t say what version of Outlook Express and I didn’t ask because I don’t have it active on any of my machines as far as I know. He also said they may never correct this problem because it would take a major change and a server shutdown. Not sure if that is the case but I guess I have to believe him.

Anyway I have noticed that even though I am using the identical address book or contact list, whatever it is called, in two versions of Outlook, 2003 and 2010, when I export them to a PST file 2010 Outlook’s PST file is about 1.33 times as larger as the same PST file created by Outlook 2003. I have looked at both of these files as a CSV file in Excel and they seem to be identical in that they start in column A and end in column CN. I see no difference there. I know I am talking about 2 separate file formats but is it common for Outlook 2010 to create a larger PST file than the one created by Outlook 2003?

Sorry about the length of this post but was hoping there is some interest and I was trying to thorough.

[HansV]

It might be that Outlook 2010 stores text in Unicode to accommodate non-Western characters. Unicode takes up more space than ANSI/ASCII.
Apart from that, Outlook 2010 probably stores more metadata than earlier versions.

[hlewton]

Thanks Hans. I do have another question and hopefully it can be asked here.

As I mentioned I now have a useful address book on the WEB server but I did a lot more work than I mentioned. I actually edited the Display as column to include the person’s last name, a comma, and then their first name. When entering this info in in Outlook’s contact list it is entered into one filed but when exported to a CSV file it separates this into separate columns. In Excel the last name is in Column D and the first name is in column B. Is there a formula to combine the data in these two columns separated by a comma and a space between last name and first name and place this new data into a new column?

[HansV]

Yes, for row 2 the formula would be:

=D2&", "&B2

Drag the fill handle (the little black square in the lower right corner) of the cell with the formula down to copy the formula to the cells below.

[hlewton]

WOW so much easier than the way I did it. Thank you.