Everyone has had contacts in the past. You have met people and established relationships and will probably want to continue to work with these individuals. You should place them in your contact list. You may also be involved in a new task where a list of names has been provided for you. Do you hand-key this information into your contacts? No, you can import it from the file given to you. Chances are that it is a spreadsheet, a text file, or an export file from some other messaging system. Outlook has a Wizard that will help you through this process.
To import a text file
-
From the File menu, click Import/Export to start the Wizard. Click Import from another program or file and then click Next.
-
Click Comma Separated Values (Windows) and then click Next.
-
Type in the name and path of the file that you want to import and then click Next.
-or-
Click Browse and find the file, click OK once you have selected the file and then click Next.
-
Select Contacts as the destination folder and then click Next.
-
Select the check box to the left of the import description and click Map Custom Fields.
-
Click the + next to Name to expand the list and then drag and drop one of the last names onto Last Name. Drag one of the first names onto the First Name. Drag the phone number onto Business Phone. Drag the e-mail address onto E-mail.
-
Click OK and then click Finish to start the import. A progress meter will show the status.
-
Click the Contacts folder to verify that your import was successful.
As you have seen in the Wizard, Outlook accepts quite a few types of import files. Just follow the steps in the Wizard and it will guide you.