How Do I Read a VCF File?

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How Do I Read a VCF File?
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Use VCard files to import or export contacts from the address books of various programs, such as Outlook, Gmail or Windows Live Mail. VCF files can contain many pieces of information about a contact, such as his name, address and email address, as well as images and other custom fields. If one of your contacts wants to send you his contact details, he may attach the VCF to an email.

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Microsoft Outlook

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To import contact information from the VCF file in Microsoft Outlook 2013, click File, select Open and Export and click Import/Export. Select Import a VCard file, click Next, select the VCF file and then click Open. Open the People tab in Outlook to view your contacts, including the contacts imported from the VCF.

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Other Email Clients and Tools

Gmail can import contacts from VCF files. Open the Contacts section of Gmail by clicking Gmail and selecting Contacts. Click More and select Import. Click Browse, select the VCF and select Import to import the contact details.

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The VCF Viewer utility -- free -- can display the contact information found inside vCard files. Launch the tool, click Browse, select the VCF and click Open.

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You can convert vCard files to CSV files, which you can then open in Excel. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers a free VCF to CSV converter. Click Browse, select the file, select the separator -- comma, tab or semicolon -- and click Convert.

In Windows 7 and 8.1, you can import contact details from vCard files into the Windows Contacts app.

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