How to import contacts from excel to outlook?

Microsoft Outlook consists of a great feature for adding your all contacts which includes a contact name, Address, Email Address, Mobile Number, Name of the Company, Job title of your contact, and many more.

Creating contact is important for future needs like group mail, bulk mail, etc. Are you moving your Email contacts from Excel to Outlook?

It’s a pretty simple process, and we’re here to help you through it!

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get your contacts from Excel into Outlook:

How to Create a New Email Contact in Outlook?

Creating contact fields is like filling out your nomination form which includes all your details.

new contact form outlook

Step by Step Guide

  • Step 1 – Open Outlook >> Click New items (shortcut key Alt + H I C) >> Contacts.
create new contact in outlook
  • Step 2 – Contact Form appears, now it’s time to fill in the details and finally Click Save and Close.

Your contact is saved in Outlook, the only problem is you must fill in the details for individual contact separately, that way importing contacts in Outlook comes into play.

How your Excel spreadsheet of contacts can be added in a few steps?

To import the contacts from the Excel list, you need to save the Excel file as a CSV file first. Import contacts from Microsoft Excel to outlook required contact details in Excel which were further imported into your Outlook contact.

Here is the step-by-step method, How to Create Excel Spread Sheet, and the basic information required to add a contact in Outlook and then save the file to CSV format.

Step 1 – Create an Excel-based spreadsheet (contact list, Phone number, contact names, Email list), no matter what details you have, refer to a sample Excel Spreadsheet below.

excel table of contents
  • Step 2 – Save your Excel sheet into CSV (comma-separated values) file, In the Save as type box, choose CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv), and click Save.
Click save as

Note: – Quick steps on how to save Excel file to (.csv)

  • Click the File tab and select the Save As option.
  • Select the location you need to save your file.
  • You will see the Save As dialog box. Select the option CSV (Comma delimited) from the drop-down list and Hit Save.
Save as dialog box
list of file type

Your File is ready to import in Outlook.

How to Import CSV file to Outlook?

Now you have your (.csv) file ready to import. [Why to save Excel in CSV for import contact – The reason is Microsoft Outlook allows the user to import the database in Comma Separated Values only.]

  • Step 3 – Click File >> Open & Export >> Import/Export
How to import contacts in Outlook from Excel
  • Step 4 – Import and Export Wizard dialog box appears, select Import from another program or file to import CSV to Outlook, then select Next.
Import from another program or file
  • Step 5 – Select Comma Separated Values and click next, (you already have saved the .csv file in the preferred location of your computer).
Comma Separated Values
  • Step 6 – Now import your file by clicking on the browse button and selecting your file.
how to create contact list in outlook from email

There are three options you have to choose from Click Next.

~ Replace duplicate contacts with items imported.

~ Allow duplicates to be created.

~ Do not import duplicate items.

  • Step 7 – Another dialog box is required now you must select your specific email id contacts, where you want to import your (.csv) file and click Next.
create an Outlook folder
  • Step 8 – Next Step is very interesting and the real game-changer, is the key answer to ‘How to import contacts in Outlook from Excel’, Mapping a custom field. Basically, this step fetches your data into Outlook contact format.
Import a file
  • Step 9 – Click on the attachment above and Click the Map Custom field.
  • Step 10 – Map Custom Fields dialog box appears, follow the below steps:

Look at Comma Separated Values-It consist of data from your (.csv) file, you can check from the image below to the image of the Excel sheet above in the article.

Another Field is – Microsoft Office Outlook Contacts (This computer only) – Which will show you multiple options required to fetch your data.

Map custom Field

How To Map Custom Fields Outlook?

Mapping is the method is connecting the corresponding Outlook fields of your CSV file and Outlook inbuilt field together.

Basically, you have to drag your (.csv) data heading with the help mouse one by one which matches with outlook headers, (for instance: click on the Name from comma-separated Value, hold the left mouse button, drag to the exact match to the right hand-filed options and leave your mouse button). That way you fetch all your data to the Microsoft Outlook database.

If you inappropriately fetch the wrong data with the wrong field, do not worry you can easily correct it by again dragging (manual mapping) the same data to the correct field, that way your previous drag is detected by itself.

If you feel there are really major changes required, you can easily click Clear Map and reset your setting.

  • Step 10 – Finally Click Finish
  • Step 11 – The system begins importing contact data into Outlook.
Import and Export contacts

How to Check Import Contacts in Outlook?

After you have completed the above process, you can easily check whether your contact properly merges in your Outlook Account.

  • Open Outlook and reach the left-hand bottom corner of the screen >> Click People (also use the keyboard shortcut Alt +3)
How to check import contacts in Outlook
  • Outlook shift to the Contact screen >> Click Home >> Move to the current view portion, you can check your uploaded contacts easily over there.
current view
  1. People
  2. Business Card
  3. Card
  4. Phone
  5. List

All these options allow the user to analyze the contact from different views.

Import Contacts on Outlook.com

People icon

Recently I configured my Gmail account with Outlook, one major problem I face is my contacts which are already available in my Gmail account, but after configuration, I have to import all those contacts to Outlook web.

I manage to create a CSV file; it is further required to import the contacts into Outlook. The above method is likely to help in Outlook Applications.

You will learn step by step method “How to Import Contacts on Outlook.com?”

  • Open Outlook Web >> and click the People icon from the left-hand upper portion of the screen.
  • Click Import Contact (Outlook.com is a web-based platform that on the interval updates the design, sometimes you need to find the import contact options).
import contacts
  • Click on Browse and upload your CSV file.
upload your CSV File
  • Find your specified location where you saved your contacts CSV file, then click import, It will take a few movements to upload
Importing Outlook contacts
  • Your contacts are uploaded and imported to your Outlook.com email account.
Outlook importing done
  • Finally, you can check out the new contacts that are added to the list.
Contacts added in Outlook web

The best part of Outlook web import is you don’t need to Map the contacts, Fields.

Importing email addresses into Outlook always works for you in a professional way. It will help you in several ways for future actions of work.

Wrap up

This article provides a comprehensive guide to importing contacts from Excel to Outlook. We will cover how to export an Excel workbook to a CSV format that can be imported into Microsoft Outlook.

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