How to Transfer Contacts to Outlook

With all the different email and database programs out there, it is common to have contacts stored in some of your databases and not in others. Synchronizing this information so that all of the contacts are on one program is essential to organizing this information. Microsoft Outlook has some useful tools to make this happen within the program.

Things You'll Need

• Second program involved in transfer
• Microsoft Outlook
• Computer

Instructions

1. Open the program from which the information is going to be transferred. This could be a program on the computer or on a different email network.

2. Export the contact information that is to be transferred in a common format such as VCARD, CSV, Access or Excel format. Usually this command will be under the "File" menu. Use the help feature within the program if needed.

3. Save the information to someplace that you will remember such as on your desktop or "My Documents" folder. If the program gives you the option to export the contacts straight into Outlook, you can skip the next step.

4. Open Outlook and go to your contacts. From the "File" menu, select the "Import and Export" command. Use the appropriate options to import the information in the format it was saved in.

5. Glance at the imported contacts, and change anything that may need to be edited or changed. Be sure the names are displayed the way you want them displayed.

Tips & Warnings

• Some programs may only let you export one contact at a time. This could be time consuming and it may be easier just to manually enter the information straight into Outlook unless you have a lot of information associated with each contact.

• Outlook has the ability to import in other formats, but it may require more work to rearrange the information the way you want it.

• Always check for accuracy because sometimes unexpected things can happen during transfers.