add contacts in bulk (Outlook 2003)

[jujuraf]

Is there a quick way to add contacts of 100's of names w/o manually doing it? I have the names and email addresses in Excel so was hoping for some import feature. Any ideas?

Thnx,
Deb

[HansV]

You can import contacts from Excel if they are in table format. See Microsoft Office Assistance: Import contacts from Excel to Outlook.

[jujuraf]

I found this same page just after I posted the question but I can't it to work. First I didn't have a range name so I added that (two cols, names and emails). The problem now is that Outlook still prompts me to manually add each person -- I mean to drag their name to the Name field and email address to one of the Email fields. This is from the Import dialog after the Excel file is selected. Even if I just click Finish, it came up with 100's of empty rows of contacts.

Ideally I'd like all the names in one 'contact name' like an alias and not each person listed individually. Or maybe I can create a new address book for these 100+ people (so it doesn't get mixed up with my own personal address book).

Thnx, Deb

[HansV]

> Ideally I'd like all the names in one 'contact name' like an alias and not each person listed individually.

Sorry, I don't understand why you would want to store many names in one contact.

If your Excel workbook looks a bit like this (as a minimum)

<table border=1><td>Name</td><td>E-mail Address</td><td>John Doe</td><td>johndoe@gmail.com</td><td>Mary Roe</td><td>m.roe@hotmail.com</td></table>
it should be possible to import the data correctly (into separate contacts). But you *must* check the field assignments! Then click Finish.

I'd create a new folder for contacts (File | Folder | New Folder) and import into this folder. You can always drag the imported contacts into another contacts folder afterwards.

[jujuraf]

I got it working by exporting the Excel as .csv file. I got this from this site, http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/qt/et031706.htm

Now I want to make these 500 names into their own contact list so I don't have to copy each one individually to the created email. Let's see how I can get that to work....

Thnx,
Deb

[jujuraf]

Ahhh, ok I understand. It was semantics with 'contacts' as Outlook defines that as one name entry. I'd like an alias whereby all 500 names can go with out one 'contact' such as US_Sales.

Deb

[JohnBF]

You can create a separate Contacts Folder to hold them, and whether you do or don't create a separate folder, you can Categorize them (set them as Category) "US_Sales", and also then from those contracts create a "US_Sales" Distribution List for ease of departmental mailings. HTH.

[HansV]

You can create a new folder, directly under your Mailbox, or under Contacts, or where you want it. Outlook should ask you what kind of items you want to store in it - select Contacts. You can then specify the new folder as target for the import.