Address Book: Importing Multi-Line Fields

A common and often unavoidable import format for Mac Address Book is Comma Separated Value files (.csv). Address Book cannot import CSV files that have multi-line fields, such as might be included in Notes, because it cannot tolerate embedded newline characters (a.k.a., carriage returns, line breaks). (See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AddressBook/4.0/en/ad808.html. The CSV spec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values) addresses this need by requiring that fields which contain newlines be enclosed in quotes, but Address Book doesn't adhere to this part of the standard.)
Here's a way to import CSV files and have multi-line fields preserved:
Using an editor, replace +every embedded+ newline character in the CSV file with "\n". Take care to not alter the newline characters that end each record. Import the resulting file into Address Book using the CSV option. Selecting the 'Last Import' group, export those specific records using the vCard option. Then delete those records. Then import the vCards previously exported. Presto!
Apparently, although Address Book is blind to "\n" when importing CSV files, and exporting vCard fields, it interprets this character sequence as newline when importing vCards.

Hi Adam,
Thanks, but the problem is not importing to AddressBook, it is exporting. I did discover from another that I can export very easily to a Numbers spreedsheet. It is exceptionally simple. But it will not export custom fields. Someone said that is because of a vcard standard. My custom fields are just "name" fields that I have labeled differently. But Numbers does not support the name (it only takes the name of the card).
Christine

Similar Messages

Address Book -- Importing CSV File created by Numbers

I'm trying to import a csv file generated from MS outlook into address book. When I attempt to import the csv file that Outlook created, Address Book is able to recognize the file. However, I need to modify the file before importing. To do that, I opened in Numbers, deleted some columns and renamed some columns. Then, I exported from Numbers as a .CSV file. However, when I try to import the .CSV file created by numbers, I get the error that I have modified with Numbers, I get the error "Text file import failure".
Does anybody know why address book can't import a CSV file created by Numbers?

Many people have run into this problem, including myself. I had worked many hours on a spreadsheet in Numbers, exported to CSV, and received the error message when trying to import into Address Book. The answers to this dilemma are out there, but tidbits of the whole answer are spread around discussion boards. So I hope to consolidate those answers here.
The main problem for me -- and it's reasonable to assume that others receive the "Text File import error" for the same reason -- is that 1) I had commas in my spreadsheet, and 2) I had hidden RETURNs in the spreadsheet. Once I got rid of those two things, I had no problem importing into Address Book.
Deleting Commas>
The problem with commas in your spreadsheet is that the CSV format uses commas to distinguish when a new cell is formed. So having other commas will inevitably confuse Address Book during the attempted import. I didn't have too many commas in my spreadsheet, so I was able to quickly remove them. Yet, if you have dozens or hundreds of cells with commas in them, you'll need an easier solution. I imagine opening Number's Inspector>Cell Inspector>Format will have the solution of removing commas from, say, currency amounts or something else. Yet, how many commas arise in contact information? Perhaps the easiest way is to use the same method of removing those hidden RETURNs. Read on...
Deleting Hidden RETURNs>
You can't see them, and I couldn't find a "show invisibles" option in Numbers. So you need to search and find them. Yet, how do you search for something hidden? Do the Command-F thing to bring up the search field. The search bar should automatically be ready to search what you type. Hitting the Return key will do nothing for you, but hitting Shift-Option-Return will (you'll likely need to hit Return again to actually perform the search). Numbers will point out how many times these hidden returns are in your spreadsheet, which cells contain them, and give you the option to automatically replace them with something else (a space is a safe option). You can do the same search and replace with commas too.
Save your spreadsheet, export it as CSV, and -- as long as the only errors stemmed from commas and hidden RETURNs -- you shouldn't have a problem having Address Book import it. Good luck!
PS- After importing my spreadsheet, I noticed that some of my Smart Groups in Address Book were not showing some people who should have automatically been in there. The problem was that the Smart Group search had straight apostrophes in it, but the imported contact had curved apostrophes. The computer saw these as two unrelated characters. After some copying and pasting, the problem was solved.

Address book import, doesn't work at all

i am trying to import a tab-seperated value text file from outlook into address book, it recoginzes the fields, however, when i click ok, nothing happends.
nothing at all...
suggestions?

I, too, am having major issues with importing.
I have tried three different things:
1) a .vcf file (downloaded from my mail account on fastmail - fastmail.fm)
2) a CSV file (also downloaded from FastMail)
3) a Vcards file (exported after an import - more details further down in this message.
So, I select import, and the file doesn't really import, the button for import does NOTHING. But, there is a 'review duplicates', I use that, click on merge, click the apply to all check box, and then import works. It only takes a few seconds. I go from 206 addresses to 316. Yay! But, there's more. I close Address book, and I am back down to 206 cards - all my imports are GONE. I have done this at least a dozen times (in hope..). Once, I imported them all, then exported them to vcards hoping I could overwrite the 206 cards with the 316 that I exported. That hasn't worked either.
Address book seems unstable after importing, too. It sometimes won't close, I need to force quit it..
I checked out the console app looking for errors or clues, and nothing. I don't know if this import worked in tiger, tho..

How to expand multi-line fields in pdf forms?

I have a FormsCentral PDF form, which allows users to fill out the form and save as a PDF. However, after receiving the completed forms, I am unable to see all the text in the multi-line field boxes without opening them and scrolling down. Since I will be sharing several of these competed forms with a review panel, I would like to:
1) Display the entire content of the multi-line field boxes rather than having the reader scroll down, then
2) Save the completed forms so that its read-only when I send it to the review panel
I am not collecting responses via FormsCentral. I am just receiving the PDF via email.
Can someone please help me?
Thank you!

You can use a script to change the font size to Auto, which will cause all of the text to display, assuming it can be even at a font size of 4. For example, the following code can be executed in the interactive JavaScript console (Ctrl+J):
// Set the font size to Auto for a text field named "Text1"
getField("Text1").textSize = 0;
A script that will change this for all multline fields in the form is:
// Set the font size for all multiline fields to Auto
for (var i = 0; i < numFields; i++) {
    var fName = getNthFieldName(i);
    var f = getField(fName);
    if (f.type === "text" && f.multiline && f.textSize !== 0) {
        f.textSize = 0;
This script could be included in an Action if you want to do this for a collection of forms.

FormsCentral PDF Form- How to View Multi-line Fields

I have a FormsCentral PDF form, which allows users to fill out the form and save as a PDF. However, after receiving the completed forms, I am unable to see all the text in the multi-line field boxes without opening them and scrolling down. Since I will be sharing several of these competed forms with a review panel, please let me know:
1) How to display the entire content of the multi-line field boxes rather than having the reader scroll down, then
2) How to save the completed forms so that its read-only when I send it to the review panel

I can point you to some online information. I really don't know the steps myself.
This blog talks about how to do it in LiveCycle Designer: http://blogs.uoregon.edu/developments/2010/12/29/pdf-making-text-fields-grow-to-accommodat e-text/comment-page-1/
You could also consider asking the user in this post for their idea on how to do it without making a dynamic form (LiveCycle): http://forums.adobe.com/message/4841774
Is there a reason you don't use FormsCentral to collect the responses? You could sign up for a 1-month subscription unless you have security or other reasons not to collect with FormsCentral, and then you'd be able to collect your responses and download each one as a PDF form individually and that form would be locked and have expanded text fields. You could stop automatic renewal and you would still have access to the form and responses in your Free level account (but could not collect more than 50 responses, if you already have greater than 50 those would remain).
Thanks,
Josh

Multi line field Navigation problem with ENTER key

No trigger on the field. Multi line Property is set to true.
The probleb is, when the cursor reaches in the multi line field. the contents of the field are hilighted/selected. So as it happens in Notepad or Word, if you select some already written text and press ENTER key the selected text will be replaced by carriage return so the selected data will be lost. Same is the case with multi line field. When field gets focus it selects the contents of field and when ENTER is pressed all the contents are deleted and a carriage return is placed.
any solution?
null

Hi Nadeem,
One work around is that you have store content of that multi-line field in to some other variable thru PRE-TEXT-ITEM and once again assign (based on some conditon) in POST-TEXT-ITEM.
null

Address book import

I have a file of comma delimited email addresses that I have attempted to import. Import.text file. I keep getting a message 'The file you selected does not appear to be a valid comma separated values (csv) file nor a valid tab delimited file, please choose another file.'
Is there a way to import just a list of email addresses?

Hi cpatmath, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Try Address Book Importer...
http://homepage.mac.com/sroy/addressbookimporter/
Great APP free for single use.

Multi-Line Fields that Move

Is there a way I can get a multi-line field to fit to the type that has been entered and then have all remaining fields move up? Users will be filling in photo instructions and some won't be as lengthy as others, but they have more photo info fields to fill out and they want to get as much as they can on one page.
No is an acceptable answer (but they aren't going to like it). Any help or ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Jon
since you are constantly reminding us of LiveCycle Designer. Is that a separate application you purchase for PC's.
I know you bring up this program to poke Mac users in the eye with.
But now with the advent of Parallel's on Intel Mac's, can it be used independent of Acrobat. might be an alternative if they just have to get designer.

I'm trying to import contacts from Outlook to mac address book. I've exported as a CSV but when i try to open with the Address book import tool, the file is greyed out and can't be imported

I'm trying to import contacts from Outlook to Mac address book. I've exported as a CSV but when I try to open with the Address book import tool, the file is greyed out and can't be imported. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Ian

If you can't get the exported .csv file to work you might consider using Migration Assistant: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518, particular if you need to move more than just your contacts. There is some granularity in the options on what to transfer but I'm not sure if you can choose to just your migrate contacts.

Address Book, importing text tab file, custom fields not there

Searched thru all past posts. Found some that are close but not what I am trying to do.
Open Address Book, go into Preferences, select Template and under the Names field (friend, assistant, father, etc) I add a custom field called "Keyword".
I also add two more custom fields in the Phone area called "Work 3" and "Work 4". There are other custom fields I need but I want to keep this short.
Quit Address Book then relaunch. Add a new contact and the new custom fields, Keyword, Work 3 and Work 4 are there. All good so far.
I have a Now Contact file with about 800 contacts in it. I export all fields as a Text file, Tab delimited. No problems there. With Address Book launched, select Import, pick the text file, leave Text Encoding on Automatic and click Open.
The window that shows the fields for Address Book and fields for the text file side by side opens. This is where you match up the correct fields for importing. If I go to one of the fields from the text file that I created a custom field for, click under the Address Book heading on the Do not import, scroll thru the Apple choices of fields, none of the custom fields show up. Only the original Apple ones are there. Why does Apple let you create them in the Template area but not have them available for importing?
That is my problem.
Adding new contacts as I get them, is fine. Importing 800 contacts with these custom fields is not possible.
I could map them to go to the Notes field along with actual notes but that is inelegant. The custom fields are there, why can't we use them to their full potential.
This appears to be a bug to me. Let me know what you think.

Hi Adam,
Thanks, but the problem is not importing to AddressBook, it is exporting. I did discover from another that I can export very easily to a Numbers spreedsheet. It is exceptionally simple. But it will not export custom fields. Someone said that is because of a vcard standard. My custom fields are just "name" fields that I have labeled differently. But Numbers does not support the name (it only takes the name of the card).
Christine

Address Book: Importing vcards with embedded photos

Hi folks,
This question would perhaps be more at home in the Apple Developer Connection Forums, but as I can't access those without a paid ADC account, I thought I'd try here on the off chance someone knows.
In short, I'm writing an application that does clever things with vcards, and it would be great if it could export them to Address Book.
That in itself is simple, but I'd also like to embed a photograph in each vcard. So, I'm successfully encoding the image into a base64 string (tested), and other applications like Entourage will happily open and see the image, but Address Book won't.
After much Google-ing I've learned that apparently Address Book expects very specific formatting (and possibly whitespace) in and around the base64 string, which is all well and good, except no one seems to know what that formatting is!
I've looked in the ADC Reference Library but it doesn't go into enough detail.
So, is there anyone who happens to know how to format a base64 string for Address Book?
EDIT: I am aware that Address Book doesn't require the string to be wrapped, and I have tried not wrapping my base64 string and if I do that then my vcards will successfully import with their photos (Entourage seems happy with unwrapped strings too).
However, this is not an ideal solution as other vcard applications may not be so accepting, and I don't believe vcards can have multiple photo fields.
Message was edited by: JavaScript

Thanks, but right now I can't afford the $500 I'd have to spend in order to buy the sufficient level of ADC membership to use the developer forums. I just thought I'd ask here on the off chance, as I know there are sometimes a few developers lurking around.
Having said that, after reading posts such as this: http://markmail.org/message/5dbslpeyhjcjxug4
I'm beginning to think there are only a handful of people who know the answer, so I may have to give up and use a work-around.

Lion address book import

I used Outlook to Mac successfully for a previous Windows Outlook to Mac Address Book contacts migration. O2M makes one vcf file with all contacts in it, and you just import that vcf file, and presto all works. That was with Snow Leopard.
Now I have a new MBP with a factory lion install. All upgrades downloaded. I open Address Book, and import my vcf file. Just over 1,500 contacts are happily imported by Lion. This is where things go strange.
If I go to Mail and type a name in the "to" field, mail doesn't try to suggest people (even though that option is turned on).
If I click the red button to close Address Book, the whole app quits (as if I had selected Address Book|Quit Address Book), rather than just putting it down on the dock. And when I re-open Address Book, all contacts are gone.
I've also tried bringing in a few vcfs at a time by getting O2M to export them all individually, and then either dragging or double-clicking from Finder. I seem to be able to get Address book to "remember" them if I bring them in slowly - 5 at a time...but when I get greedy and try to bring in say 25 or some other larger number, I get the same thing - they won't "stick" in Address Book.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Do you have any addresses in the Lion version?
If not, copy the AddressBook folder from your username/Library/Application Support/ folder on the old mac (or backup).
Copy it to the same location on your new Mac, replacing the one that is there. Start Address Book in Mountain Lion and it should convert the files to the correct format.
If you do have addresses, it is a little more complicated.
First, create a Contacts Archive (from File>Export menu). This will be your backup.
Next, export the current contacts as vCards.
Then, follow the steps above.
Then, import all the cards you exported. If you select all and double-click, it will ask if you want to add them. You'll then have to add them to whatever groups you had set up.

Address Book & iPhone rearranging contact fields by themselves

I've been searching for a solution to my issues but haven't been able to do so, neither on any forums or anywhere in the internet.
I've got iPhone 4 iOs 5.0.1, Mac OS 10.5.8 and Address 4.1.2 and I have 2 problems;
1) Whenever I try to rearrange the fields of one my contacts in the Address Book, I can do so during "Edit card" mode. As soon as I hit "Save", everything is back to square one.
I mingled with Address Book/Preferences/Template but no solution. Still, almost each of my contacts have different fields and different sortings which are not in line with my templates.
2) When I sync my phone via iTunes, things get even more complicated. My phone rearranges the fields with different templates and they vary from contact to contact.
I must say that the main problem is with phone numbers as I only have Work & Home for the address fields and they just work fine.
However, with the contact numbers, instead of the mixture described above, I'd like to have a standard template in the same following order such as;
Work
Home
mobile
mobile 2
etc...
and be able to use that very template all over.
Can anyone give a hand please?

I actually just posted this issue as a question before I saw yours, the thread is titled "GLITCH ALERT! iPhone 5 contacts syncing"
I experienced the same thing on my iPhone 5, black 32 GB.
I synced my contacts today and the order the information was displayed was randomized, in that it was not the order I chose, this affected the contacts app on both the iPhone and my laptop. For example, I have my phone number fields in this order: home, mobile, work; my e-mail address fields as: home, mobile (for text), mobile (for pics), work; I have a similar orders for URL fields as well.
On any given syncing session, for each contact, either all the fields within all categories will be in a totally different order, or some of the categories and their fields will be intact while one or two will be randomized. For example the order for my phone numbers might be randomized as work, home, mobile, NOT as I indicated above.
I spoke with Apple Tech Support and the particular tech said this is the first he’s heard of this problem, and that in syncing, the display of entries on the laptop app and on the phone should match. He suggested as a solution to back up the iPhone and restore the phone to the factory settings then restore the backed up files. They also advised they would alert the tech engineers.

Address Book Importing From Entourage

Hello,
With the latest version of Microsoft Office on my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, when I export from Entourage to import into Address Book, there is a problem with some data loss. It seems as if not all telephone numbers and email addresses are imported. The tab delimited text file that Entourage creates looks normal when viewing the information from Address Book prior to importing, but some of the data is left out anyway. All other data (addresses, notes, etc...) seems OK. Any ideas?
Thanks

Entourage can export vCards which can be directly imported by Address Book. Simply select all your Entourage contacts and drag them into an empty folder on your Desktop. This will give you a folder full of vCards. Import them directly into Address Book.

Address Book Importing Contacts to Outlook

Can anyone advise on how to import contacts from Address Book into OUtlook for Mac?

As I read this thread, I can see where the solution for Heather would qork for exporting maiboxes and contacts from Outlook (windows version) and then into apple mail or entourage. I have a tougher problem.
My wife is upgrading from an old Imac (OS 9.1.2) using Outlook Express5.0 to a MacBook. She has years of email and contacts on her old client.
I am familiar with exporting and importing, but I don't even see a choice for exporting messages on the Outlook Express client.
Can anyone help here? Geez, Apple should be at fault here for building such a reliable machine that we didn't' have to upgrade earlier. Just kidding.
Thanks in advance,
John

Address Book: Importing Multi-Line Fields

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for