Need to export contacts from Outlook? I used to work in an office where employees have multiple versions of Office installed on their computers, including Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010, and Office 2013! When someone changed computers, I usually had to export their email and their contacts to another computer, which most often had a different version of Office installed.
If you create multiple contact folders in Outlook, you will have to export each one individually. In this article, I will show you how to export contacts to different versions of Outlook. I will also mention the process for Windows Live Mail if you are using that program.
Export contacts from Outlook 2003, 2007
Let’s start with the old version of Office 2003! Note that the same procedure works for Outlook 2007. First open Outlook, then go to the File menu and then Import / Export. If the menu item is grayed out, be sure to read this article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If there is no Import / Export option at all, you just need to add it to the File menu.
You can do this by clicking View, then Toolbars and Customize. On the Commands tab, click File under Categories. Scroll down the list until you find the Import / Export command at the bottom of the list. Now just drag it to the actual File menu and release.
In the list, select “Export to file” and click “Next”.
Select a personal folder file (.pst) from the list. I prefer to export it as a PST file so that it can be easily imported into another version of Outlook.
Now you ‘ll get a list of all your folders, including Inbox, Calendar, RSS feeds, etc. Click “Contacts” as we only want to export Outlook contacts. If you’ve created other contact folders inside the main contacts folder, be sure to check the Include subfolders box.
Click Next and then select a location for the backup file. Be sure to go somewhere else, as Microsoft uses a hidden folder by default. You may also be asked if you would like to add a password to protect the PST file. If not, just leave the fields blank and click OK. After that click on Done and you’re done!
Export contacts from Outlook 2010, 2013
The interface in Outlook 2010 and 2013 is slightly different, so a different set of mouse clicks is required to navigate to the Export to File screen. First open Outlook and click “File” and then “Options.”
On the left-hand menu, click on Advanced and then scroll down until you see Export.
At this point, you will see the same Import and Export Wizard dialog box shown in the above procedure for Outlook 2007. The only difference is that the PST file is now called an Outlook data file rather than a personal folder file.
Export contacts from Outlook Express
If you are still using Windows 98, Me, 2000, or XP, you may be using Outlook Express. Outlook Express has a slightly different procedure, but it’s also very simple. First open Outlook Express, then go to File, select Export, and then select Address Book.
Click the text file (comma separated values) and then click Export.
Click Browse to manually specify the location or file type to save.
Click Next and then select all the fields you want to export for each contact ie. name, E-mail, street, company, phone, etc.
Click “Finish” and you’re done!
Export contacts from Windows Live mail
This is probably the easiest of all. Open Windows Live Mail and click Contacts. It is very similar to Outlook, which makes it very easy to use.
In Windows Live Mail, all you have to do to export your contacts is to click the Export button on the ribbon.
Super easy! If you have any questions or concerns about deleting contacts from Outlook, feel free to leave comments. Enjoy!
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