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Restoring Your Outlook Express Address Book

Last week, I wrote about backing up your Outlook Express Address Book. This week, let's look at restoring Outlook Express Address Book — it's a lot easier.

First, start Outlook Express. Once OE has completely started, click on the Addresses icon. I will assume that we're importing the Address Book into the Main Identity. If you have set up multiple identities in OE, then switch to the identity of your choice.

In the new "Address Book - Main Identity" window, click on File.

This will open a pull-down menu, where you will pick Import and the "Address Book..."

In the typical file-selection window, now labelled "Select Address Book File to Import from," move to the location where you have the backed-up Address Book. If this is on a CD or floppy drive, you may want to copy the files to your hard drive first.

Select the backup Address Book (it shows with an ending of .wab, if you have disabled "hide file extensions"), and click "Open."

Outlook Express will import the file and give you a confirmation.

Depending on your Outlook Express version (OE4, for example) you might not have exported a .WAB file. If so, you can File, Import "Other Address Book..."

Now, in the Address Book Import Tool, pick the type file.

This is probably going to be a "CSV" comma-separated-values file. Select "Text File (Comma Separated Values)" and click Import. Outlook Express will complete the import process.

If you exported individual .vcf "Business Cards" from your old Address Book, instead of a .wab Windows Address Book,you can drag-and-drop the .vcf Business Cards into your new Outlook Express Address Book. Open the Address Book and then drag one or more files onto the Address Book.

This step will be tedious, as OE will ask you if you want to modify or edit each record. So, if you can, you might want to go back and Export a .wab Address Book file. Importing it will be a lot easier.

Related articles:

• Backing Up Your Outlook Express EMail Folders
• Backing Up Your Outlook Express Address Book
• Restoring Your Outlook Express EMail Folders

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Copyright © 2006 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.