Table of Contents goerke.tech
Converting contacts information to CSV

Converting contacts information to CSV

By default, Olminator will convert contacts information to .vcf/vCard format. But with v2.50 it is now also possible to convert contacts to CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format. This format can be easily read and post-processed with spreadsheet applications like Apple Numbers or Microsoft Excel (s. restrictions below) or be used to import your data e.g. into Salesforce applications as it is a very commonly used format for data transfer between apps.

How to convert to CSV within Olminator?

When Olminator introduced the Viewer tab allowing you to navigate the entire content of the selected .olm archive, it provided with a completely new and very convenient way to select subsets of items contained in your Microsoft Outlook for Mac export. CSV conversion for contacts now makes use of that fact:

To convert contacts information to CSV, open the Viewer tab in Olminator's navigation bar and browse the folders of your archive displayed to the left. Select a Contacts folder (e.g. or an entire account or the "Accounts" root folder) that you want to turn into CSV. The "Start [converting to ...]" button at the button bar on the bottom of Olminator's window will be enabled, once you have a folder selected. Make sure you have "converting to CSV" selected in the "Start" button. Then press that button to start the CSV conversion.

Alternatively, you can right-click a Contacts folder (or an ancestor folder thereof) from the folder tree and select "Convert to CSV" from the popup-menu.

Olminator will convert the contacts items of the folder you selected plus all contained folders' items to CSV, except those that have the little blue checkbox to the left of their name unchecked. This allows you to fine-tune which folders' items actually show up as CSV afterwards.

You can stop a lengthier CSV conversion at any time by pressing the "Stop" button. But I think you have to be really fast to be able to do that.

The progress of the CSV conversion will be accordingly reported with a progress wheel on screen. You can't navigate to other sections in Olminator while Olminator is busy with the current content – my apologies.

Once the conversion is finished – either by having all contacts items turned into CSVs or by you having pressed the "Stop" button in between – the progress wheel will stay visible for a few seconds and then close automatically (you can also close it immediately by pressing the little chevron button in the Viewer's bottom action bar). Once it is closed, you can continue working with Olminator as before.

How to customize CSV generation?

Please see the respective paragraphs in the documentation about configuration options, which can be found on the Configuring Olminator page. The most straightforward defaults have been chosen to guarantee a smooth CSV generation "out of the box". But if you're planning on importing the exported .csv file into Microsoft Excel afterwards, you may have to tweak the default settings of Olminator potentially.

Previous page Back to top Next page