How can I import address book from thunderbird on another computer

Question

I just purchased a new laptop and have dowloaded Thunderbird for my e-mail as that was what I was using on desktop. I have 2 e-mail accounts, my personal e-mail addresses came thru with no difficulty however my other account the contacts in address book didn't come thru. So question is how can I get address book imported for this account too. My desktop is Windows XP and my laptop is Windows 8
thanks for any help

Answer 1

The neat thing to do would be to copy the profile from the XP machine to the W8 machine. This would have transferred your messages, your account settings and your Address Book and much else.
Given that you have set up Thunderbird and have started using it, copying over the profile may not now be terribly attractive for you.
So, instead, you can export and import your Address Books.
On the XP computer, open the Address Book, select an address book (e.g. Personal Address Book), select '''Tools|Export''', select the name and location of a file to contain the exported data, choose LDIF and then Save. Repeat for each required address book. Give your LDIF files simple but meaningful names, such as PAB.ldif and CA.ldif. Don't use, for instance, ''Personal Address Book.ldif'', as this will create a second address book with the same name as one of the defaults and you won't be able to easily tell which is which.
Put the exported LDIF files where the W8 computer can see them, e.g. a USB memory stick.
On the W8 machine, open the address book, Tools|Import and select an exported LDIF file. It will import and create a new address book; you'll probably want to move the Contact data back to the usual address book. You can select all (ctrl+a) then drag-and-drop the imported Contacts to the preferred address book. Repeat for each LDIF file.
Having said that, I don't understand what you mean by "my personal e-mail addresses came thru with no difficulty however my other account the contacts in address book didn't come thru"; unless you have moved the profile folder over, I don't understand why ''any'' contacts should have transferred.
If you have in fact moved the profile folder, then I'm puzzled as to why the transfer of address books has been incomplete. However the export and import route should be able to reclaim the missing address book(s).