address book

[yodar]

is there a way to import addresses from netscape4.8 into TB's 'Personal Address Book' ?

i can import it, but TB insists on adding it as a new address book instead of putting the address in TB's 'Personal Address Book' .

[R4F]

I don't think so, but drag and drop after import works.

[tanstaafl]

I couldn't find a way to drag and drop, or copy addresses from one address book to another within Thunderbird. However, I backed up my profile, and then copied the addresses from abook.mab (personal address book) to impab.mab (outlook express address book) using a text editor and it worked fine.

I skipped the big block of stuff at the beginning of the mab file that defined what columns it knew about, and appended the remainder of the file to the other address book. Its a big mess of gobblydegook but you can make reasonable quesses about where the real data is. It might take you a couple of tries (if you guess wrong about what to copy) but you could probably import your addresses the same way.

A safer alternative might be to export your addresses from the multiple address books within thunderbird using the CSV format, merge the files using a text editor, and then import that merged file. If it works, then you might be able delete the other address book files, and rename the one you want to keep as abook.mab.

Just make certain you back up your profile first.

[R4F]

When I open address book and left-click and hold an address from the main pane, I can drop it on another address book name in the pane to the left of that.

[tanstaafl]

Thanks. Works for me now. No idea what I did wrong before

[yodar]

i found out that renaming impab.mab [which was created when i imported the NS4.8 address book] as abook.mab, it became my 'Personal Address Book'.

thanks for the suggestions.