(Archived) HOWTO: Export business cards to Address Book

[macbug 0]

I've seen a few threads on moving information from address book to Evernote. I'd actually like to take the information from the Business Cards I capture and import them into Address Book. Is there a way to do that currently? In the works?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

AFAIK, there is no way to export from EN into a contact database.

[SethH 36]

We recently had a partner launch an iPhone application that does just this. You can read more at http://scanbizcards.wordpress.com/2010/ ... -update-2/.

[macbug 0]

Seems cool. But no iPhone. I typically will be taking these photos with iSight on Mac or blackberry and emailing the image to Evernote. I couldn't tell from web but is there a desktop app for scanbizcard?

[SethH 36]

Unfortunately, no.

[patrickq 0]

Hi Seth,

I just noticed this - better late than never! Actually we DO have a desktop version of ScanBizCards! Just do this:

- go to http://www.scanbizcards.com/websync

- sign-up for a web sync account

- you are all set to start scanning business cards right from your desktop, by uploading business card images from any source (camera, mobile phone, flatbed scanner) into you web account then OCR the cards there

This page should tell you more: http://www.scanbizcards.com/websyncfeatures

Note: we are in the process of streamlining the scanning of multiple cards in a single flatbed scanner as follows:

- we will add in a matter of days an option to scan each card out of a multi-card image without affecting the multi-card image itself (i.e. there will be no need to duplicate the large image for each card in it)

- in a few weeks: we will automate the whole process from multi-card image to scanned cards, in one click

And one recommendation: please scan each card by clicking it then Scan!, instead of batch OCR multiple cards at once, there is an issue with batch OCR at this time.

Finally, a brand new ways to scan cards as well as get them added to your web sync account: just email card images as attachments to scan@scanbizcards.com, for example from a BB phone. Make sure to send at the largest size without reducing size. This will do the following:

- within two minutes an email will be sent back to you with the scan results

- the scanned card (image + text) will be placed in your web sync account (if you have one associated with the email account from which you sent that card)

Regards,

Patrick

[LarrySwanson 0]

Thanks, Patrick. I don't see in your post or the pages you reference a way to import the contact info into my Mac Address Book. Did I just miss something?

Thanks,

Larry

[patrickq 0]

Hi Larry,

Do you mean how you would go about adding a card you scanned through the ScanBizCards desktop (web) interface into your Mac address book?

- Just open a card (from Thumbs View, List View or even Map View)

- In the thin black bar above the card image & details you should see an option called "Export + Address Book"

- click it, chose VCard (the default choice)

- this will prompt you to download and open that card's info in VCard (.vcf) format and the Mac Address Book is the default handler for this type of files

Regards,

Patrick

[ToddMotto 0]

Don't think so, but let me know if you find a solution!

[lucas123 0]

No need Address Book. If you have an Iphone or Android phone Business card scanne. That will be easier and simple

I hold more thousands of business cards now