Question [1] : I’m new to Mac, I just switched to my first Mac, before I only used Windows PCs. How can I import my contacts from my Windows PC into my new Mac running OSX ?

Question [2] : I’m a Mac user myself, but I need to share my contacts database from Apple AddressBook with WindowsPC-users I’m working with. Since there is no Apple AddressBook for Windows, this seems impossible. What can I do ?

Answer to both [1] and [2] : It’s possible, and it isn’t that complicated either.

There are (free) MacOSX-applications that can do this for you.

! BEWARE ! there are 2 applications around that are extremely similar (and therefore easily confused) both in name and features :

Address Book Exporter 2.1.2 (from 2003 ; with a space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9312/address-book-exporter

AddressBook Exporter 1.0 (from 2005 ; without a space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17501/addressbook-exporter

The first one (from 2003 ; with a space in the name) is the best one. That’s the one that still works properly with Apple AddressBook from MacOSX 10.6 “Snow Leopard”.

How to install :

• download the application (from 2003 ; with the space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9312/address-book-exporter

• drag the application-icon to your Applications folder

How to use it :

• startup the application “Address Book Exporter 2.1.2”
• from the “Groups” list, choose “All” to start converting your entire AddressBook, or choose only the selection that you want to export
• if you would like to convert / export a selection that is not listed, go back into your AddressBook and create a (temporary) group from your selection
• now, in “Address Book Exporter 2.1.2” check the checkbox of “Export using current field settings”
• click the “Configure Settings” button
• in the pull-down menu that appears, check the checkboxes of everything that you would like to export, and click “OK”
• click the “Export Address Book” button
• if you like, you can change the name of the exported file
• then choose a destination on your Mac where you will be able to easily find the exported file (e.g. “Desktop”) and click “Save”
• quit “Address Book Exporter”
• open “MS Excel”
• drag the icon of the exported file (from the Desktop) onto the MS Excel icon in the Dock, to have it opened in Excel
• and… here you are : all your contacts are in Excel now
• from there you can “Save As” to have a .xls-file that you can share with WindowsPC-users