How To Convert vCard (.VCF) Files to Comma Separated Lists (.CSV) Files for Easy Import to Thunderbird, Gmail, or other Address Books

I am still using my old version of Lotus Organizer and now need to sync my address book with my newly acquired Palm Treo.  But I could not find a conduit to do it and it looks like IBM is no longer supporting the software for newer hand held devices.  Although I really love my Lotus Organizer, its time to say good bye to an old friend. My current problem however is trying to export / import my address book to a format that can be easily read by newer devices and software.

I will most likely switch to the new Chandler open source software soon.  The Chandler Project looks really promising these days!  Chandler is sort of an evolution of the Lotus Organizer project actually...  It was built on the vision of the text based precursor to Lotus Organizer called Lotus Agenda which was created by the Chandler Project's founder: Mitch Kapor who is also the founder of Lotus Development Corp, and IMHO, creator of the most significant desktop application in software history: Lotus 123!

Anyway, I was in a fix trying to export my Lotus Organizer Addresses to a simple spreadsheet as the only format that seems to work now is the multiple vCard 3.0 format that was a good standard back in the day but seems to be no longer supported by many of the newer address books and spread sheets these days. (although I found some significant discussion within the Chandler Project Wiki about support for the vCard standard.  We shall see what happens with that)

Another problem seems to be related to the Palm hardware / Software altogether.  They are sticking to their proprietary hotsync software and not adopting the standard iCalendar format that everyone else is using.  So I probably will move on to a more open iPhone like device in the long run.  For now I am stuck with doing the conversion - export / import tango.

After searching Google I finally found a really nice on-line tool that will convert a .VCF file to a comma or tab separated text file.  Tab and Comma separated files are universal and always work with everything.  Its great to know that the oldest spreadsheet system in software history is still supported and hopefully will stay that way as long as we have the ASCII standard. :)

So If you guys ever need to import from the older .VCF file standard into a spreadsheet you are in luck!  Here is how to do it: 

• Open your older application and save your address book as a multiple vCard (.VCF) file to your desktop.

• Then  Go to this website to display the on-line conversion tool.

• You will be presented with the option to browse to your desktop location where you saved the .VCF file

• Choose the Format, (CSV, or Gmail CSV if you are importing to the gmail address book)

• Set the delimiter to "Tab"  (less problematic than commas as commas are more likely to be in the text than tabs) 

• Check the "Add Header Line" option - so you will know what the resulting columns are for (these will be the first row)

• It also gives you the option to export only vCards containing email addresses which is really convenient!  (I chose to export all records regardless)

• Click on the convert button.  It will do the convert and then offer you the new .csv file to download.

• Now you can open the newly converted ASCII Character Delimited Text File (.CSV) with any spread sheet program or import it into your mail client, or upload it to your gmail address book. .CSV files are a good way to store backups of your address books too as they most likely will never become obsolete!
  

How Nifty! - This and other tools can be found on the developer's web site:  http://labs.brotherli.ch/  This guy is a Macintosh developer living in Switzerland.  Guess he goes by the nick name: "endless"  You can send him email here:  This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Cheers! - Ben