I exported phone contacts to a vcf file which I wanted to edit on Windows.
What's the editor of choice on Windows for cleaning up your contacts?
--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 5/8/2021 9:29 PM, Martin Brown wrote:
> I exported phone contacts to a vcf file which I wanted to edit on Windows.
> What's the editor of choice on Windows for cleaning up your contacts?
Thought there may be some special software, I use MS Notepad to edit
all of my VCF file.

The format of the VCF file is simple to read and edit.

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
EMAIL;PREF=1:ddd@email.com
FN:John Doe
N:;John Doe
END:VCARD

Open a couple to understand the format for the more detail files, and be
very careful to honor the punctuation.

I usually use an established vcf file as a template for new vcf files.

I have all of my phone contacts on my computer as a back up to my phone
contacts. It is also availabe if I need the inforamtion for a letter, etc.

Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> I exported phone contacts to a vcf file which I wanted to edit on
> Windows.

Just open in any text editor. It's a text file that starts with the
lines:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION: <version>

where <version> is 2.1, 3.0, or 4.0, contains field names and values
(usually 1 per line, but line folding is allowed per RFC), and ends with
the line:

END:VCARD

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard. Examples of different VCF
versions are shown at:

https://docs.fileformat.com/email/vcf/

VCF structure is defined by RFCs at:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6350
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6868

While you'll still end up learning about VCF structure, you can use a
vCard editor. There are many.

https://www.google.com/search?q=vcard%20editor

> What's the editor of choice on Windows for cleaning up your contacts?

The contacts manager in whatever app/program I'm using that has
contacts. If I'm using MS Outlook then I use Outlook to manage my
contacts. If I'm using Thunderbird, em Client, or some other e-mail
client, I use its contacts manager. If I'm trying to migrate contacts
between apps, the ones I use allow exporting and importing using CSV
file format (also a text file).

Martin Brown wrote:
> I exported phone contacts to a vcf file which I wanted to edit on Windows.
> What's the editor of choice on Windows for cleaning up your contacts?

(Re-sent...)

C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\wab.exe

At least that will provide a view of what
the parsed text file will look like.

Don't ask me how that got there. Windows Mail sounds
like I installed something for that to be there. Because
that is unlikely to be the home of Mail.App which is the
Mail Windows 10 has in it. The Mail.App just wants to
hoover any contact material into the cloud. This might
not do that.

Name: wlsetup-all__2012_Wave5.exe
16.4.3528.331
Size: 137329840 bytes (130 MiB)
SHA1: 14E848BD6B69C4C94C65DD87C1CF70BF8F00992D

https://web.archive.org/web/20170310081505if_/http://wl.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/C/1/B/C1BA42D6-6A50-4A4A-90E5-FA9347E9360C/en/wlsetup-all.exe

If I do Start : Run : wab.exe , a File Explorer window opens instead.
Pointing to curious empty folder called "Contacts". There is a button
called New Contact at the top. As well as Import and Export buttons.
Task Manager shows wab.exe is running, so that is the manifestation
of running wab.exe .

As you can tell, I'm a real Windows Address Book fan :-)
It's apparent I've spent zero time there. The New Contact
button left me "shocked". Such automation.

Paul

On Sun, 9 May 2021 02:29:49 +0100, Martin Brown wrote:

> I exported phone contacts to a vcf file which I wanted to edit on Windows.
> What's the editor of choice on Windows for cleaning up your contacts?

vim has a file for the syntax:
https://github.com/vim-scripts/VCard-syntax/tree/master/syntax

Martin Brown wrote:
> I exported phone contacts to a vcf file which I wanted to edit on Windows.
> What's the editor of choice on Windows for cleaning up your contacts?

C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\wab.exe

At least that will provide a view of what
the parsed text file will look like.

Don't ask me how that got there. Windows Mail sounds
like I installed something for that to be there. Because
that is unlikely to be the home of Mail.App which is the
Mail Windows 10 has in it. The Mail.App just wants to
hoover any contact material into the cloud. This might
not do that.

Name: wlsetup-all__2012_Wave5.exe
16.4.3528.331
Size: 137329840 bytes (130 MiB)
SHA1: 14E848BD6B69C4C94C65DD87C1CF70BF8F00992D

https://web.archive.org/web/20170310081505if_/http://wl.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/C/1/B/C1BA42D6-6A50-4A4A-90E5-FA9347E9360C/en/wlsetup-all.exe

If I do Start : Run : wab.exe , a File Explorer window opens instead.
Pointing to curious empty folder called "Contacts". There is a button
called New Contact at the top. As well as Import and Export buttons.
Task Manager shows wab.exe is running, so that is the manifestation
of running wab.exe .

As you can tell, I'm a real Windows Address Book fan :-)
It's apparent I've spent zero time there. The New Contact
button left me "shocked". Such automation.

Paul

Paul wrote:
> C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\wab.exe
>
> At least that will provide a view of what
> the parsed text file will look like.
>
> Don't ask me how that got there. Windows Mail sounds
> like I installed something for that to be there. Because
> that is unlikely to be the home of Mail.App which is the
> Mail Windows 10 has in it. The Mail.App just wants to
> hoover any contact material into the cloud. This might
> not do that.
>
>    Name: wlsetup-all__2012_Wave5.exe
>          16.4.3528.331
>    Size: 137329840 bytes (130 MiB)
>    SHA1: 14E848BD6B69C4C94C65DD87C1CF70BF8F00992D
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20170310081505if_/http://wl.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/C/1/B/C1BA42D6-6A50-4A4A-90E5-FA9347E9360C/en/wlsetup-all.exe
Hi, Paul.

wab,exe is present for compatibility with later MSFT email clients.
Windows Live Mail and Outlook

Wab.exe:
- loads *.contact files
- provides the ability to import files .csv .contact, .vcf and OE's contacts
- provides the ability to export to csv and vcf
- WLMail can auto import *.contacts or manually import csv and vcf files
- Outlook's pre-M365 versions can import contact, csv, and vcf files
- Outlook M365 versions can import csv files
- Outlook.com web UI(for Outlook, Live, Hotmail, Msn.com MSAs and third
party email address MSA's) People app can import csv files
- Windows 10 Mail app has an indirect import - imports contacts from an
MSA or Gmail account(from the Outlook.com People app or Gmail web
contacts) post MSA or GMail account setup and a subsequent sync

i.e. As long as one has *.contacts in C:\Users\<windows logon>\Contacts
and wab.exe then that compatibilty provides the opportunity to get their
contacts in a file for use in other Microsoft email products and also
other 3rd party online contacts.

The hoovering via the Win10 Mail App is two-way - down and up to the
respective Outlook.com or Gmail cloud.

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ
msft mvp 2007-2021(Jun)