Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts - Printable Version
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Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Mitcho1989 on 09-30-2009 at 01:20 PM
does anyone here use an email account that ISNT hotmail? copying your contacts from messenger to them is a pain. i had about 500 contacts at one stage.
if anyones interested, i have written a basic program that can do the hard part of the job for you. its called MSN2CSV. all you have to do is save your contact list (works with both MSN and WLM contact lists), then MSN2CSV can convert the file to a CSV file, which is used by almost every email service there is.
instead of copying my contacts one by one from MSN to my gmail account (which i mainly use), it took me just a couple of minutes by using MSN2CSV instead.
furthermore, you can do it in 2 ways: either a simple conversion of one contact list to a CSV file, or an advanced method, which can combine multiple contact lists to one CSV file, and can also let you name each contact if you choose.
if it sounds like this could be any use to you, go to http://msn2csv.wordpress.com and check the Download page to get it.
any feedback is appreciated. speaking of which, sorry for the ugliness lol, its an old version of visual basic i wrote it with. am working on a modern one now.
thanks!
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by matty on 09-30-2009 at 02:46 PM
You can save the contact list as a CSV already from within WLM. It has been there since the old MSN Messenger days.
But none the less it looks good.
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Mitcho1989 on 09-30-2009 at 04:20 PM
you sure? i can only save contact lists to CTT files, not CSV 
and thanks for the comment 
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Spunky on 09-30-2009 at 05:33 PM
quote:
Originally posted by matty
You can save the contact list as a CSV already from within WLM. It has been there since the old MSN Messenger days.
But none the less it looks good.
I thought so too, but checked before I posted and could only find .ctt as well =/
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by matty on 09-30-2009 at 05:45 PM
quote:It has been so long since I have done it, isn't the CTT file simple a CSV? The more I think about it the more I realize its similar to an XML... FML.
Originally posted by Spunky
quote:
Originally posted by matty
You can save the contact list as a CSV already from within WLM. It has been there since the old MSN Messenger days.
But none the less it looks good.
I thought so too, but checked before I posted and could only find .ctt as well =/
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Mitcho1989 on 10-01-2009 at 01:33 AM
nah, CSV is Comma Separated Values, nothing like XML lol
this is my 2 email addresses in a CTT file:
quote:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<messenger>
<service name=".NET Messenger Service">
<contactlist>
<contact type="1">mitcho1989@hotmail.com</contact>
<contact type="1">mitcho1989@gmail.com</contact>
</contactlist>
</service>
</messenger>
in a CSV file:
quote:
Name,E-mail Address
Mitch,mitcho1989@hotmail.com
Mitch,mitcho1989@gmail.com
too many file formats! lol
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Spunky on 10-01-2009 at 07:11 AM
It would be possible for a script to output all contacts to a CSV file...
If you wanted to make it even easier that is 
lol
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Mitcho1989 on 10-01-2009 at 07:33 AM
i was hoping to be able to do that eventually. just gotta be bothered to sit down and read up on how to make scripts lol.
im barely a programmer lol ive done a small bit of visual basic, thats it.
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Spunky on 10-01-2009 at 09:15 AM
I started off with VBA and VB6... It's easy enough to learn, but I would say the syntax is closer to C++ rather than VB, but is obviously closest related to Javascript. I'll knock the script up tonight and comment it and see if you can pick anything up
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Mitcho1989 on 10-01-2009 at 11:48 AM
thanks mate, much appreciated lol
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Spunky on 10-01-2009 at 05:39 PM
Haven't commented it yet... Also, had some trouble with it (file not writing properly and then I needed to add unicode support 
)
The only thing I couldn't do that I wanted to was to be able to import it back into WLM =/
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by CookieRevised on 10-01-2009 at 07:17 PM
errr.... As Matty pointed hinted out there is a way easier solution since the peeps at MS already made it happen... if you have an hotmail/live email.
Simply log in to Windows Live Mail (former hotmail) and there you have an option to save your entire Messenger contact list (or just the contacts you like) as a CSV file. This file will also include all the other info like addresses, phone numbers, etc as well:
1) Log in to Windows Live Mail (http://mail.live.com)
2) In the left menu click on Related Places > Contact List
3) Select the contacts you whish to export
4) In the top menu click on Manage > Export
5) Verify the captcha on the next page and click on Export
6) Save the WLMContacts.csv file to the location you choose.
As per usual, it may seem like a lot of things todo, but it is actually extremely quick; just clicking on two menus.
Messenger can indeed only export to a CTT file (which is an XML formatted file).
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Spunky on 10-01-2009 at 07:41 PM
Yeah, but 2 clicks is easier than all those steps...
Also, I don't have any contact info saved for anybody on WLM so other details aren't too important to me.
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by CookieRevised on 10-01-2009 at 07:52 PM
quote:lol, "all those steps"? As per usual, it may seem like a lot of things todo, but it is actually extremely quick; just clicking on two menus.
Originally posted by Spunky
Yeah, but 2 clicks is easier than all those steps...
Let's break down what you must do with the script solution in the exact same manner:
1) Log in to Windows Live Messenger
2) Navigate to the script file and open it
3) Click on "I accept"
4) Click on "Ok"
5) Navigate to the Plus! icon and choose Contacts2CSV > Export
6) Save the WLM-Contacts.csv file to the location you choose.
7) and you're now left with a script which will just sit there doing nothing for the rest of the time j/k
Suddenly seems equally long, isn't it? And that for something you aren't going to do each day, so why bothering installing anything especially for that.
unless you want to export your contact list from a non-hotmail account, then I'll shut up
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by Mitcho1989 on 10-01-2009 at 11:48 PM
well Cookie, you better be shutting up now lol nah just messing
but that was what i made it for, as i originally used my gmail for msn, that was when i first wrote MSN2CSV.
thanks for the help guys, much appreciated
RE: Copying Contacts to non-Hotmail Email Accounts by CookieRevised on 10-02-2009 at 01:49 PM
quote:which I actually might use myself because I also have a non-hotmail account.... go figure...
Originally posted by Mitcho1989
well Cookie, you better be shutting up now
but that was what i made it for, as i originally used my gmail for msn, that was when i first wrote MSN2CSV.
thanks for the help guys, much appreciated