How to transfer contacts from desktop to outlook

Irishgoatman

I've had to change to windows8 which means I'm using outlook for mail.
I manage to save all contacts (email addresses) into a file on desktop. How can I copy to outlook without doing it 1 at a time ?.

Any help appreciated.

Torqay

Export your contacts to CSV (Comma Separated Values).

Irishgoatman

Torqay wrote: »

Export your contacts to CSV (Comma Separated Values).

Thanks but how do I what that? certainly can't see any mention of CSV. If I did manage to do that then what would I have to do?

Sorry but maybe I wasn't clear. I need to know how to transfer them all the way into outlook.

I've never had problems before with transferring contacts, but then again, I've never used windows8 before.

Torqay

Let's start from scratch... Where exactly are your contacts stored now and in which file format?

Irishgoatman

My contacts, as I first said, are stored in a folder on the desktop. Before changing computers, and from Vista to windows8, I just created a folder on desktop then did a "copy all" from my contacts list in windows mail to that folder and then copied that folder to a back-up disc. That folder is now on windows8 desktop. I can copy them all to outlook but, at the moment, only one at a time and as I have a lot that is a slow, tedious way to do things.

The contacts all have a suffix of .contact

Hope this helps.

Torqay

OK, first step: copy the lot to the proper location. Like in Windows Vista and 7, you'll find the Contacts folder in C:\Users\<your user name>.

Then follow this tutorial to export your contacts to CSV (this should be no different in Windows 8).

And here is how to import contacts from a CSV file into outlook.com

Irishgoatman

This is still not clear to me. Perhaps I'm ultra thick.

Yes the folder is in c:\users\<my name>

Then you say "copy to the proper location". What do you mean by the PROPER location?

Then the two links you gave show me how to export to the outlook.com website. I don't want or need them to be on a website, I just want/need them in outlook on my computer.

As I said in the first place, I can transfer them from their current position, in a folder on the desktop, into the outlook address book but only one at a time. All I want to do is transfer them en masse, as in cut & paste.

Torqay

Copy the content of the folder on your desktop (i.e. your contacts) to the folder C:\Users\<user name>\Contacts.

Then follow the steps in this tutorial, according to your version of MS Outlook.

Irishgoatman

Thank you, a much better link..

Job done.

janeparker

Hi,
Thanks Torqay for sharing a better resource to accomplish the process of transferring contacts from desktop to Outlook.

Regards:
Jane