This tip sheet provides a very basic step by step guide to preparing Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, or Eudora contact lists to be imported into ODB. This tip sheet assumes that your mailing list includes the conventional mailing list fields: name, address, phone, email, etc. ODB does not require you to have all these fields; it only requires a first name or a last name.

For more complex importing, please email the odb-help mailing list.

STEP-BY-STEP FOR CONVERTING A MS-ACCESS TABLE TO ODB:

1. Open your Access database, then open the table you wish to transfer to ODB.


2. Choose Save As.../Export from the file menu, then click OK.


3. Under the Save as Type... pull down near the bottom of the window labeled "Save Table...", choose 'Text Files'. Also change the location the file is to be saved if you wish to do this, and then click OK.


4. In the Export Text wizard, choose 'delimited' (the option that is first highlighted), and click Next.


5. Under choose the delimiter, select 'Tab'. Also check the box labeled 'Include Field Names on First Row', and then click Finish.


6. If the data you export is very simple, you could directly import it into ODB. However, it is probably easier if you preview the data in a spreadsheet program before doing so. So we recommend that you impore the data into Excel or a similar program.


7. From Excel, you can import the data by choosing Open... from the File menu. The open box should contain a pull down menu at the bottom labeled "Files as Type". If it says 'Excel Files', you will want to change it to 'Text Files' so that you can see the file you exported in step 5.


8. A Text Import wizard will appear. Click Next twice to go to the third step.


9. If the file you are importing contains zip codes, use the horizontal scroll bar to scroll over to the zip code column and once you have selected it, change its type to 'Text'. This is needed to prevent Excel from chopping off the leading zero in zip codes for New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and New England. If you don't have any zip codes from these states, you can skip this step. When you are done, click Finish.


10. Congratulations! Now you can use the spreadsheet software to 'cleanse' the data before importing it. Usually this is done by sorting the data according to several of the columns and then, if you have three address columns, consolidating the information (by moving apartment or suite numbers or by using abbreviations) into two address columns, so it is easier to import into ODB.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR CONVERTING AN EXCEL DATABASE TO ODB:

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet. It should have your data laid out so that each row is a person or group, and each column is a field name, i.e.

   first	last	street
   jane	rowe	23 varney
   steve	smith	21 stillman

   (If the spreadsheet does not include headers, please add them before continuing. The names that you give to the rows are for your own use; they do not have to exactly match the names that ODB uses for fields.)



2. Choose Save As... from the file menu, then click OK.


3. Under the Save as Type... pull down near the bottom of the "Save As..." window, choose 'Text (Tab Delimited)'.


4. Exit from Excel.


5. Go into ODB and then import the text file you saved in step 3 using the instructions in the ODB user guide.

SOME TIPS ON IMPORTING AN EMAIL ADDRESS BOOK INTO ODB:

1. Please visit the web page: http://www.interguru.com/mailconv.htm for an online utility that will convert from Outlook, Eudora, or other Address book formats. If you are converting an Outlook file, please use the option in this online utility that is labeled "MicrosoftExplorer /Outlook/Exchange/WAB/PAB".
   
   Also, please see the links page at: http://www.interguru.com/MailInformation.htm


2. After you have followed the directions at Interguru, go into ODB and then import the text file you saved using the instructions in the Import section of the ODB user guide.