How Do I Move My Outlook Contacts to Address Book?

So you have years of data in your Outlook Contacts that you would hate to lose and shudder at the thought of typing it all in again by hand. I hear you. Let's look at two ways of getting that info into Address Book on your new Mac.

The Easy Way. The best way to do achieve this goal is to throw down $10 and buy Outlook2Mac from Little Machines. You can buy it right off their website. Not only will it transfer your contacts, but also any of your old email and calendar events you specify. You run the program on your PC and it holds your hand while creating files you will transfer your new Mac. One important note: Outlook2Mac is only for Outlook, not the free Outlook Express program that comes with Windows.

Because it translates your Outlook files into industry standard files, you can also import not only to Mail and Address Book, but also to Entourage if you are using that instead of Mail. So the quick and easy way is to:

1. Purchase Outlook2Mac and load it on your PC.
2. Run it to create a folder of files called My_Outlook_Files.
3. Copy those files to your new Mac.
4. Import the files into Address Book.

The Free Way. Now, if you have more time than money, you can download Netscape 7.2 on your PC for free and use it as an intermediary to convert your Outlook contacts into the right type of files. To do this, go here on Netscape's web site to download the program. Install it, open it and in the Window menu, choose Address Book. With the Address Book window open, click the Tools menu and select Import. This will bring up a series of screens to take you through the Import process. Once you are done, go ahead and test it by clicking on the relevant icon in the Address Books list to the left in the main window.

Now for the next step: exporting the contacts. Go back to the Tools menu in the Address Book window and select Export. From the Save As Type menu Select LDIF and give it a name and a location, preferably your desktop. Find this file and copy it to your Mac.

Importing. For both routes, all you need to do to import the contact data is to open Address Book on your Mac, click the File menu, select Import, then LDIF. Find your file and wha-lah, your contacts should now all be in Address Book.

What if I have Outlook Express, not Outlook? You can use the Netscape method, or if you can spare $50, you should buy Move2Mac, another PC to Mac utility. The upside of Move2Mac is that not only can you move your Outlook Express data, but Move2Mac lets you quickly and easily transfer music, photos, files, folders, and more from your PC. It's much more comprehensive than Outlook2Mac. Check out their website for the full story.