by Alexander Frolov, updated on
In this article, I'll show you how to import contacts from Excel to Outlook 2016-2010. You'll find three easy steps for getting your contacts exported. Convert your data to .csv format, import them to Outlook with a special wizard and match Excel headers to the corresponding fields.
In September, we published an article showing how to export Outlook contacts to Excel. Today's post looks at importing contacts from Excel to Outlook.
Excel is a convenient place for storing your contact details. You can process your data in many different ways: merge several files with emails, delete duplicates, update fields in all items simultaneously, combine several contacts into one, benefit from using formulas and sorting options. After your data are shaped the way you need, you can export contacts from Excel to Outlook. There are three main steps you need to follow:
Tip. More ways to import contacts are described in Importing contacts into Outlook from CSV or PST file.
The easiest way to get your contacts ready for adding from Excel to Outlook is to save the workbook in CSV format. This approach works for any version of Office and lets you forget about some issues like named ranges or blank contacts.
This message tells you about the limitation of the CSV file. Please don't worry, your original workbook will stay as is. Just click OK.
This info-notification can be ignored. Thus, you can click Yes to get your current worksheet saved in the CSV format. The original workbook (the .xlsx file) will be closed and you may also notice that the name of your current sheet will change.
Now you are ready to add contacts to Outlook.
On this step you'll see how to import contacts from Outlook to Excel using the Import and Export Wizard.
On this step you will also see radio buttons under Options allowing you to not import duplicates, replace existing contacts or create the duplicated items. If you happened to export your contact information to Excel and want to import them back to
Outlook, please make sure to select the very first radio button.
Please don't click Finish yet. You'll need to associate some of the columns in your CSV file to the contact fields in Outlook. This will import your contacts from Excel to Outlook exactly as you want. Keep reading to get the steps.
To make sure that the details from your imported contacts appear in the corresponding fields in Outlook, use the Map Custom Fields dialog box on the last step of Import and Export Wizard.
Now you can see the Phone number column header next to the Business Phone field.
Your contacts are successfully added into Outlook from Excel.
Now you know how to export Excel contacts to Outlook 2010-2013. You just need to create a .csv file with the emails, import it to Outlook and map the corresponding fields. If you come across any difficulty when adding the contacts, feel free to post your question below. That's all for today. Be happy and excel in Excel.
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