Jump to content

Export Contacts to a CSV/Excel File


Recommended Posts

Hey guys...brand new to Evernote.  I have over a 1,000 business cards I need to get digital and someone told me about Evernote.  I love how easy it is to scan in the cards and get their contact info in...like I how can manage the contacts...but...

 

The purpose of needing this is to be able to use the information for relationship building...thus I need to be able to export all the addresses, emails, names, etc in order to send Christmas cards, email marketing or upload phone numbers into my dialing system (Mojo).  That pretty much means an excel or csv file.  Can Evernote do this?

 

I downloaded Evernote Hello for my iphone and the Windows program.  I see the export as an HTML page and the enex file but that doesn't get me what I need and I haven't found anything out there that helps with taking the downloaded content that way and easily getting it to the format I need.   

 

Any help would be appreciated...

Link to comment

Hey guys...brand new to Evernote.  I have over a 1,000 business cards I need to get digital and someone told me about Evernote.  I love how easy it is to scan in the cards and get their contact info in...like I how can manage the contacts...but...

 

The purpose of needing this is to be able to use the information for relationship building...thus I need to be able to export all the addresses, emails, names, etc in order to send Christmas cards, email marketing or upload phone numbers into my dialing system (Mojo).  That pretty much means an excel or csv file.  Can Evernote do this?

 

I downloaded Evernote Hello for my iphone and the Windows program.  I see the export as an HTML page and the enex file but that doesn't get me what I need and I haven't found anything out there that helps with taking the downloaded content that way and easily getting it to the format I need.   

 

Any help would be appreciated...

 

Evernote only exports to html or enex.  If you are tech savvy or know someone who is, you could probably cobble something together by either using Evernote's API or pulling info after you've exported it to html.   But if you regularly do big mail merges, I'd stick with a proper program for that, even if it means duplicating data in Evernote & the mail merge database.  I don't do big mail merges, but I still do this - keep the current & past info in Evernote but keep the current address in my mail merge database.  (For me, by keeping the old contact info along with a date in Evernote, it's helpful when looking at the mail merge info to confirm if it's the current mailing address...just in case I forget to change it there.)

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Hey guys...brand new to Evernote.  I have over a 1,000 business cards I need to get digital and someone told me about Evernote.  I love how easy it is to scan in the cards and get their contact info in...like I how can manage the contacts...but...

 

The purpose of needing this is to be able to use the information for relationship building...thus I need to be able to export all the addresses, emails, names, etc in order to send Christmas cards, email marketing or upload phone numbers into my dialing system (Mojo).  That pretty much means an excel or csv file.  Can Evernote do this?

 

I downloaded Evernote Hello for my iphone and the Windows program.  I see the export as an HTML page and the enex file but that doesn't get me what I need and I haven't found anything out there that helps with taking the downloaded content that way and easily getting it to the format I need.   

 

Any help would be appreciated...

I agree, we ( at multiple companies) use it to get to LinkedIn which is great but the main use case was getting the data to our CRM via: 

-csv export

-drag and drop contact file for outlook/Gmail

-email a contact file like card-munch did as an contact attachment

 

Right now it is a good for LinkedIN but has no value for sales, BD and real list builders, conference attenders or sales pros.

 

Evernote if you are able to solve that for us  it would be hard to ever leave you.....for now it is not enough value in our sales process to not be looking for other solutions.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Tim

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

I'm currently experiencing the same problem as Tim. I love the program but I need to be able to export my contacts. Unfortunately I've already merged my Card Munch contacts and new business cards and can only export in .enex or html which I can not download to my email marketing program. I have to start all over!

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • Level 5*

I hate to be the bearer of bad news guys, but, IMO, it is very unlikely that Evernote will ever provide this CSV export feature for contacts.

I say this mainly because the contact data is stored as text in the body of the Note, not in separate fields like you need for CSV export.

 

Evernote seems to have switched gears now, and is on to "bigger, better, things", that will "bend the universe" (whatever that means) as announced in their recent 2014 Annual  Conference.

 

The only work-around I see is to export your Notes to HTML, and then write a script that will parse the HTML file into separate fields, and then export as CSV.

If the contact format is consistent, this should be possible.  I've done stuff like this in years past using MS Office VBA.  But you could use any language you're familiar with.

 

If you still have the business cards, there are business card scanning apps that will scan, OCR, and export to CSV.  Some even export directly to Outlook.

 

Good luck to all!

Link to comment

In the scans I did today the data is definately held in some king of fields as opposed to free form, I guess some enterprising person could write a HTML to CSV or HTML to Sugar/SalesForce/Whatever link .. which is just what I'm after

 

The other option would be to add to contacts in the Android version (out now) and then sync to your desktop and output from there, I'd really rather not ... but it might be an option for some?

Link to comment

Just realised you can "export" from your desktop EN (both Mac and Windows) by selecting the contact notes and from there click "share" and have the option to export to Google contacts or Outlook contacts

from there you can export, if you still need to ...

While not a CSV option, it might be a work around route?

Link to comment

Just realised you can "export" from your desktop EN (both Mac and Windows) by selecting the contact notes and from there click "share" and have the option to export to Google contacts or Outlook contacts

from there you can export, if you still need to ...

While not a CSV option, it might be a work around route?

I've been trying to do this magical "Export to Google contacts" that you mention.....just cannot for the life of me work out how to do it..any hints? I cannot even work out how to select multiple cards for export. I found some "connect to Google address book" function that I approved....then came to a grinding halt again as I tried to do so. I have a load of cards I've scanned, and I need to get them into ANYTHING that I can edit and add fields. After that I will export to csv so I can send them emails....hope you can help.

 

Thanks in advance...

Link to comment

Multi select in Windows is easy, in notes view, just click the first one and shift click the last (the outline goes blue on my system) or even ctrl click the 2nd to xth.

They then display as a stck in the left hand pane, with options like "share" "merge" etc,

 

Click ... err, now there WAS an option here last time I looked to send to Gmail under the share option ... but's gone, or my memory has!

 

Just retraced my steps and I'm a little lost as to where the Gmail / Outlook options have gone?!

 

either I've upgraded since the 21st or I'm going mad, as I checked it before I posted, as it's just what I'm looking to do as well ...

 

So nowI'm in need to help too, probably Men in White Coats!

Link to comment

So having searched the online KB etc, here is a review of the relevant content ... 2 articles:

from : https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/53430697

 
Can I save contacts to Microsoft Outlook or other address books?

Yes. Once you’ve saved your Contact Notes to the contacts list on your device, follow the device instructions for syncing your device with Outlook and other address books (On iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.)

 

 

 

and from: https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/53057988

 
Save to Contacts on your device

There are two ways to save contact information from every scanned card to the Contacts on your mobile device:

  • Automatically: To save information from every card scanned, simply tap your account name and select General > Camera > Business Cards > Save Contact Info To Contacts

  • Manually: From the Options menu, select Save to contacts

Note: By default scanned cards are saved to the Business Cards notebook. You can change this notebook and how cards are tagged from the Settings screen. Simply tap your account name and select General > Camera > Business Cards and select Notebook or Tag to change your preferences.

 

 

 

Sadly these options mentioned at the end about default folders are not yet included in the Android version (oh, please Evernote this is not that hard to get consistent)

 

So from the KB articles not much of help regarding exporting from the desktop, it seems that the link at time of scanning is the only route. With the iPhone there are more settings under General > Camera> Business cards, and you can set each card to be saved to contacts, the Android version is missing this setup, but can be done each time after the scan ... yes, sadly more inconsitent interface/settings :-(

 

Not having a Mac to check this on, but I understand from other posts that the Mac Desktop version does have the Share > Send to contacts, any one able to confirm?

 

On the iPad (and i assume all iOS phones etc) and definitely on Android only 1 contact can be saved to contacts.

 

So sadly it looks bleak for Windows users.

 

There is a product, with a free trial that might support the needs:

http://www.fieldstonsoftware.com/software/gsyncit4/

 

I am waiting to hear from the company if they do or are planning to support contacts from Evernote to Outlook sync'ing as their last product pages don't show it.... watch this space!

 

About to have a play with a snapscan iX500 and see how that copes with evernote, or if just using the Fujitsu bundled card software is easier ...

 

Anyone with other ideas for getting bulk (multi-selected) already scanned business cards to Gmail or Outlook feel free to shout out!

 

Thanks

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Grrr is right.  There is no normal, sane way to get contacts scanned from business cards via Evernote into any normal, usable format.  I wish I'd know that before wasting my time doing it for 100-some odd business cards from a conference.  What a non-feature masquerading as a feature this is!  If evernote functioned as a contact manager, fine.  But it doesn't so now I'm stuck manually redoing the work I spent quite a bit of time doing through Evernote.

 

Seriously, if someone from Evernote could reply and tell me what use this feature is supposed to be without a proper export (.csv or .vcf would be nice), I'd very much appreciate it.

Link to comment
  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Best solution I've found (on Mac) is saving the business cards to contacts.

This can be done automatically at the time the cards are created, or manually later from the mobile app or desktop app.

 

Automatically (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch): To save information from every card scanned, simply tap your account name and select General > Camera > Business Cards and toggle 'Save to Contacts' or
 

Manually: Select Save to contacts from the options menu (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) or from the pop-up menu displayed after each completed scan (Android)

(reference KB article: https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/53057988

 

From the desktop app, save each card to contacts individually, or select several cards at once to be saved to contacts.

Select Share>Save to Contacts from the individual card drop down menu, or from the main menu Note > More Sharing > Save to Contacts

 

          H8uo0X6.png                    wuineD9.png

 

These saved contacts will show up in your iCloud contacts.  Unfortunately, I found no way of saving the Evernote tags with the contact in iCloud so that the saved contact could be easily identifyied (if someone else does, please lmk!).

 

From iContacts, one can export selected contacts (singularly or in bulk) using File > Export > vCard.

 

vCards are importable by many services.  I am using Zoho CRM which allows import of vCards (instructions here) and export in CSV format (instructions here)

Link to comment
  • 3 months later...

Hopefully, there will eventually be a solution for Mac users (c'mon, it's 2015!), but for now, my contacts are stuck in Evernote jail.  Sorry, downloading each contact from my personal Address book after a 4 day trade show, and then exporting them from that program might have seemed like a great approach circa 1999, but it's absurd in this decade. 

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...
On 28 July 2015 at 7:35 PM, Crick said:

Best solution I've found (on Mac) is saving the business cards to contacts.

This can be done automatically at the time the cards are created, or manually later from the mobile app or desktop app.

 

Automatically (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch): To save information from every card scanned, simply tap your account name and select General > Camera > Business Cards and toggle 'Save to Contacts' or
 

Manually: Select Save to contacts from the options menu (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) or from the pop-up menu displayed after each completed scan (Android)

(reference KB article: https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/53057988

 

From the desktop app, save each card to contacts individually, or select several cards at once to be saved to contacts.

Select Share>Save to Contacts from the individual card drop down menu, or from the main menu Note > More Sharing > Save to Contacts

 

          H8uo0X6.png                    wuineD9.png

 

These saved contacts will show up in your iCloud contacts.  Unfortunately, I found no way of saving the Evernote tags with the contact in iCloud so that the saved contact could be easily identifyied (if someone else does, please lmk!).

 

From iContacts, one can export selected contacts (singularly or in bulk) using File > Export > vCard.

 

vCards are importable by many services.  I am using Zoho CRM which allows import of vCards (instructions here) and export in CSV format (instructions here)

When I just tried this I found Evernote would only export the name, email address and photo (from linkedin) but not phone number & postal address.  This might be because my primary account in Mac Contacts is an exchange server.  Then again it might not.  

On the other hand if I save it after scanning each card on my Android phone (to the same Exchange server) it works inasmuch as all the detail is captured (address, phone number, notes etc) but *not* the photo (from linkedin)!.  [However the address isn't correctly parsed - ie all the address is on the first line, rather than separated into city, postcode etc.  This would be a nice to have, as my old Cardscan scanner/software could do this pretty well].  

Conclusion: scanning with Evernote is almost brilliant (particularly with the linkedin integration)...  but not quite...

Of course you could do the above methods then select both versions and then 'merge' in Mac Contacts - but its a bit of a palaver...

Link to comment

I'm done with Evernote. They had 2 years to figure out a way for people to get data out of their roach motel and never bothered to fix it. Sorry, but "allowing" me to export 100's of contacts I get at trade shows into my personal contacts database for Mac really isn't a solution. All they need is a simple export to Excel, but in the interests of keeping everything locked inside Evernote, they refuse to do it. 

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
12 minutes ago, pmbanas said:

All they need is a simple export to Excel

You're right - Evernote has not implemented an Export to <insert your app> feature
However, it wouldn't be high on my priority list.
Before I started with Evernote, I checked and made sure my data was not trapped 
I am satisfied with the alternative solutions.

Why is "allowing" me to export 100's of contacts" not working for you?

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
4 hours ago, DTLow said:

You're right - Evernote has not implemented an Export to <insert your app> feature

The problem is that some time ago the former Evernote CEO, Phil Libin, make it clear that he hates everything Microsoft.  By ignoring the fact that most of the business world, and therefore many individual users, use MS Office as a standard, Evernote is limiting sales.  It is very, very common for apps to provide export to MS Word and MS Excel.  I think the world would stop revolving if MS Excel were to disappear.

Both MS Word and MS Excel have been part of my core tool set for decades.

Link to comment

The desired capability to export to an Excel or CSV file is readily available via Outlook running under Windows (and, I presume, Macs, too). Here's how I have done it a couple times in the past.

  • Scan business cards using the iOS version of EN. (I don't know if this will all work with Android devices.)
  • "Save to Contacts" as described by Crick above).
  • Under Windows, synchronize the Contact records on your iOS device with Outlook. (This can be set up via iTunes, but it currently disables the ability to simultaneously sync Contacts to iCloud.)
  • Open Outlook and export the contact records to Excel or CSV. (Go to File ---> Options ---> Advanced ----> Export)

The piece that is missing in this process and other processes described above is how to mark some contact records as belonging to a specific group, as was mentioned by 'ATL sales guywho started this thread. For example, he'd like to be able to easily develop a Christmas card list.

The iOS Contacts app is not particularly helpful here. There is no explicit "tagging" type field. There have been a couple times when (on a small scale) I used the Notes field in the iOS Contacts app as a place to add a key word (such as 'XmasCard=Yes') and I searched on it. However, this isn't likely to be very effective on a larger scale and/or for more than one contact "tagging" need. In that case, it would work better to maintain multiple "tagging" values in Excel. Of source, this has the downside that the user would need to spend effort to develop and maintain a process by which the contact records in Excel with the "tags" can be synced/matched to the contact records in the iOS Contacts app and, hence, Outlook. Without such a syncing/matching process, changes to addresses, phone numbers, names, etc. would need to be made manually in two files.

Either way, this all suggests to me that the best solution rests, not with getting Evernote to enhance its contact-record handling capabilities, but to get Apple to enhance its Contacts app to allow "tagging" and exporting selected records and fields to at least a CSV file. (Evernote was not conceived or designed to be a contact-record handling app. Apple's Contacts app was.)

If you agree with my comments, I ask that you petition Apple to enhance its Contacts app to do at least these three things:

  • Add multiple "Tagging" fields to each Contact record by which users can enter values based on any scheme they develop.
  • Allow for all or selected Contact records (and fields) to be exported to at least a CSV file that can be transferred to other computers.
  • Add a unique Contact record number field. The value for the field in a Contact record would be created by the app when a new contact record is created, can be seen by, but not modified by, users and which can be exported, too. (This would facilitate the syncing/matching need that some sophisticated users have / will have.)

If EN retains its business card scanning and its "Save to Contacts" capabilities and Apple enhances its Contacts app, I think we will all have the best of all worlds.

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
25 minutes ago, Analyst444 said:

this all suggests to me that the best solution rests, not with getting Evernote to enhance its contact-record handling capabilities, but to get Apple to enhance its Contacts app to allow "tagging" and exporting selected records and fields to at least a CSV file.

I think both Evernote and Apple could be approached on this as both have this limitation
but as per the subject and original post in this thread, a simple .csv export was requested for Evernote contact information
This was clearly an Evernote limitation.

Link to comment

I think you're missing the point. Any database that has identified fields filled with data should easily be exportable. Even another notorious roach motel company, Intuit, allows exports of its files and also into Excel.  I don't love Microsoft any more than any one else does but their format (used by Google, Apple apps and others) is very straightforward and makes it easy to turn  editable spreadsheets into tab delimited records that easily can be imported into almost any database.

This is not rocket science nor does it involve Apple. It involves Evernote wanting to trap as much of your data inside their database before you realize you can't get it out. Let's just call it a "barrier to exit" strategy. 

It's too bad because the tool they bought that imported biz card data was super-helpful for those of us needing to save hundreds of cards and then upload them to other services. 

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
5 hours ago, pmbanas said:

Any database that has identified fields filled with data should easily be exportable.

I agree.  Unfortunately, Evernote has very few actual database fields, and contact info is NOT included in these fields.
The contact "fields" you refer to are actually embedded in the HTML code within the Note.

Evernote is a general purpose PIM (Personal Information Manager), and does not have, nor does it support, custom fields that would allow it to be used more like a dedicated contact manager, or any other dedicated app.

5 hours ago, pmbanas said:

It involves Evernote wanting to trap as much of your data inside their database before you realize you can't get it out. Let's just call it a "barrier to exit" strategy. 

Evernote provides an export to HTML files, which are pretty universal, and can be read by many, many apps.  So I don't see any "barrier to exit" strategy.

Having said all that, if you have even a modest amount knowledge about HTML and scripting, it would not be that hard to parse the HTML files exported from EN and pull the contact info into a CSV file.

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

Clearly, JMichaelTX, you haven't looked at the HTML output before claiming that anyone with "even a modest amount of knowledge about HTML" could figure out how to convert the files. Each contact is exported as its own html page with an associated html contents folder that actually contains the data. 400 contacts from a trade show then equals a folder with 800+ items (1 entry file for the contact, 1 folder with things related to the contact, which could equal how many more files)? There's no simply "modest" way to manage that output through some scripting (says, yes, someone with more than some modest knowledge). 

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
On 4/15/2016 at 8:01 PM, mandm said:

Each contact is exported as its own html page with an associated html contents folder that actually contains the data. 400 contacts from a trade show then equals a folder with 800+ items (1 entry file for the contact, 1 folder with things related to the contact, which could equal how many more files)?

Well, perhaps "modest" is not the best descriptor of the skill level needed for this task.  OTOH, it is not hugely difficult.

I really doesn't matter how many files that 400 contacts generate.  The key is to figure out the pattern and format for one contact.  Once you know that, then you are just in a repeat loop for however many contacts you have.  There are many tools available today to help you parse a HTML/XML file.  There are also boards (like stackoverflow.com) where you can post technical questions and get a lot of help.  I've even see some forums where other forum users have written complete scripts in response to someones request for help.  And then there is always Search, your friend.

The ultimate point is that you are not "locked in" by Evernote since they provide a public, well-known export format (HTML).

Link to comment

Mandm is right. There's easy ("click here to export a CSV") and then there's "export 800 html pages and wrassle with the data." For me, I'm done. If I were ever open to Evernote, that day is long gone after 2 years of watching this forum for an answer. Evernote just doesn't want you to be able to take your data out. It's as simple as that. And if that's the way it is for an address book, why would I use it for anything else. 

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
1 hour ago, pmbanas said:

Evernote just doesn't want you to be able to take your data out. It's as simple as that. And if that's the way it is for an address book, why would I use it for anything else. 

You could use one of the import apps to transfer your data to Apple Notes or MS One Note

Then you could use their csv export process.

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
17 minutes ago, pmbanas said:

Evernote just doesn't want you to be able to take your data out. It's as simple as that.

I'm sorry, but that is just not true.

See Evernote's 3 Laws of Data Protection 

Quote

3. Your Data is Portable
 

Even though millions of people have their most important information in Evernote, we still want to make sure that they can leave the service quickly and easily. There is no data lock-in with Evernote. We are committed to making it straightforward for you to get all of your data into, and out of, Evernote at any time. Our desktop software lets you export all of your notes and content in human-readable HTML, as well as a fully documented machine-readable XML format. We also have a full, free API that lets you access all of your data.

 

Link to comment

Hi All -

I ran into the same problem and coded-up a quick script that converts Evernote HTML into CSV. 

Essentially, if you export your business cards into HTML, my script will scrape the HTML and create a CSV files containing your contacts. It isn't perfect, but it is better than what Evernote provides ;)

Script is in Python and available here:

https://github.com/davisjp1822/enbc2csv

I hope it helps!

Link to comment

Many thanks JohnDavis et al for this discussion, I'm in the same purgatory it seems.

I found this thread as well, which looks to do something similar for Windows:

Apologies if cross-posting, thought I'd possibly save Evernauts a little time / frustration in their search.

 

Link to comment
  • 11 months later...

Thanks Crick!  I haven't scanned a biz card in years since sticking it into the Evernote black hole was just a waste of time. I'll give Cam Card a try. It's a service I'd happily pay for if it works. I really thought the LinkedIn integration in CardMunch was genius.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
On 4/24/2016 at 4:33 PM, JohnDavis said:

Hi All -

I ran into the same problem and coded-up a quick script that converts Evernote HTML into CSV. 

Essentially, if you export your business cards into HTML, my script will scrape the HTML and create a CSV files containing your contacts. It isn't perfect, but it is better than what Evernote provides ;)

Script is in Python and available here:

https://github.com/davisjp1822/enbc2csv

I hope it helps!

Nice job JohnDavis. Just saved me a couple hours with your util. Thank you. Despite your warnings, it worked flawlessly. Thank you.

Link to comment
On 6/6/2017 at 1:14 PM, wowsers07 said:

@JohnDavis, I'd like to use your script, but I'm not a developer. What's the easiest way for me to take advantage of it? Happy to pay you.

Thanks,
James

Hi Ron -

I don't really hire out for this type of thing, but the script is (hopefully) easy to use! Are you on a Mac, or on a PC?

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Just tried Cam Card (camcard.com) per Crick's reco above. It's a fair scanner and does have output to .XLS. It can never be as good as the linkedin product which automagically corrected the scanner OCR errors. However, it does allow your data to run free rather than the walled zoo of Evernote. If anyone finds something better, please let us know. Perhaps in the 2020's, Evernote will also evolve. 

Cheers!  

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...