Well, the key to this problem is "I am in France" so going to assume you are
running under French regional settings. That being the case - here is what
the problem is:
#1 - When Outlook exports - the CSV file is created using a comma delimitor
regardless of what the regional setting is (and in turn expects a comma
delimiter when importing). In a perfect world, one would expect that a comma
would be used universally in all CSV files (but that's not the case when it
comes to Microsoft Office)
#2 - MS Excel uses the "list separator" character as defined in the Regional
Settings for the field delimiter when saving (or opening) a CSV file
#3 - If I was to make an educated guess - suspect that the Vista Mail import
process follows the same rules as MS Excel and therefore is expecting the
field delimter to be a ";" (semi-colon) which is used under French (France)
regional settings and therefore is the reason that everything appears in the
first field.
#4 - Why does Thunderbird etc work? Simple, it's expecting the "," separator
which is what Outlook used when creating the original CSV export file
If my suspicion(s) are correct - if you changed the regional setting on your
Vista machine to be US English (or any setting where the list separator
character is a comma), and then imported the very same CSV file via Vista
Window's Mail - it probably would work (don't have a Vista machine handy at
the moment to verify this prior to posting this here but fairly confident
based on your description that my suspicion is correct). Actually, once you
change the regional setting - Excel will read the file correctly as well
which you can check on any XP or Vista machine (that I know for sure).
To change your regional setting on the Vista machine - just go to All
Programs - Control Panel - Regional Settings and change the language
setting.
Karl
PS - I now acutely remember why we included the ability to change the CSV
field delimitor in our CG Exporter product and have to treat many
internationally created CSV files as "custom delimited" instead of "comma
separated" in our current Outlook import products.
___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com
"Olivier"
discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7AB8D5EF-4C6A-41BF-8604-FE0A8C37522B@microsoft.com...> Many thanks for all this strongly appreciated help. Indeed, it seems that
> there is something with the csv format. It was generated by Outlook 2003,
> on
> my XP office desktop. The strange thing is that Thunderbird and Scalc
> (Star
> Offfice spreadsheet) properly imports it (scalc pointing that it is comma
> spearated), but neither Excel nor Windows Mail, which both display it as a
> single field with "Name","Fisrt Name",... displaying commas, but not
> interpreting them.
> It might be that it comes from the regional settings (I am in France),
> since
> the file is generated and read on different machines, but I could not
> figure
> where to change it in Vista settings.
> Indeed it is not tab separated, since this is another option in Outlook
> export.
> I also tried to go through LDIF format, which Windows Mail can import,
> generating it in Thunderbird; it worked well for some dozens of contacts,
> but
> it suddenly failed, creating import errors. I am now trying to generate
> Works
> database format... I am nealry desperate, as you might see!
>
> Thanks again for your help and for any idea.
> --
> Olivier
>
>
> "Karl Timmermans" wrote:
>
>> Focusing in on a key element of this problem where you wrote "it sees
>> all
>> the headlines as one field"
>>
>> Do you in fact have a properly constructed CSV file (if in North
>> America -
>> each field name would be separated by a comma - else it would be
>> separated
>> by the list separator character as defined in your regional settings
>> depending on what country your in)? You don't have a tab-delimited file
>> do
>> you by any chance?
>>
>> Since I don't use Vista or Vista WebMail on a day to day basis decided to
>> test a CSV import using a CSV file created by an Outlook export on our
>> Vista
>> test system for my own curiousity and it worked just as advertised. When
>> all
>> the fields in a header row are seen as a single field, usually means that
>> the file is not constructed as expected or it is constructed using a
>> separator character which differs from what the (importing) system is
>> expecting. Would be totally amazed if something as fundamental as a CSV
>> import did not work without there being some underlying cause related to
>> the
>> data itself.
>>
>> Just a thought given that the other responses seem to accept the premise
>> that the problem is that the import function doesn't correctly recognize
>> a
>> CSV file.
>>
>> Karl
>>
>> ___________________________________________________
>> Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
>> ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
>> "Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
>>
http://www.contactgenie.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Olivier"
discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:D19FEC32-C146-413D-A740-DB57878549E6@microsoft.com...>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I want to export my Outlook 2003 contacts to my new Vista laptop, wch
>>> only
>>> runs Windows Mail (Vista Contacts). I tried the csv files, but the
>>> import
>>> function does not recognize it properly (it sees all the headlines as
>>> one
>>> field) (surprisingly, it works welle with Thunderbird, but my telephone
>>> sync
>>> tool does not recognize Thunderbird...).
>>> Is there any better way than using csv?
>>> --
>>> Olivier
>>
>>
>>
