CSV Import Bug

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tier 3 Questions
  • Start date Start date
T

Tier 3 Questions

When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again, on the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either, I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with Styles, this is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in an way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and the problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd like to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times unrelated, so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles are
stored.
 
Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call with me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after if I
could.

Diane Poremsky said:
Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Tier 3 Questions said:
When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again, on the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either, I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with Styles, this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd like to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times unrelated, so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
FWIW, this would never be a method for restoring a corrupted PST file.
Importing never restores data. It changes it, as you have proven once again.
If you need to restore a damaged PST file that IRT can't fix, create a new
PST and copy the data you need from the old to the new. Never use import.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Tier 3 Questions said:
When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K
contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call with
me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after if
I
could.

Diane Poremsky said:
Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You
should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Tier 3 Questions said:
When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back
into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the
notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again, on
the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply
unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either, I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with Styles,
this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was
released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd like
to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate
export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style
settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times unrelated,
so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
This is contrary to what I've been told by at least 15 reps at Microsoft over
the years prior to the export when I was dealing with the corruption.
Anyway, it doesn't matter at this point, that act was taken 1-2 years ago.
There is no going back. Now I am just looking for insight into the strange
behavior of the import imposing styles on the notes field.

Russ Valentine said:
FWIW, this would never be a method for restoring a corrupted PST file.
Importing never restores data. It changes it, as you have proven once again.
If you need to restore a damaged PST file that IRT can't fix, create a new
PST and copy the data you need from the old to the new. Never use import.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Tier 3 Questions said:
When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K
contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call with
me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after if
I
could.

Diane Poremsky said:
Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You
should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


message When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back
into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the
notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again, on
the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply
unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either, I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with Styles,
this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was
released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd like
to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate
export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style
settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times unrelated,
so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
so you are working with an export/import that occurred over 2 yrs ago? What
version of outlook were you using at the time?



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Tier 3 Questions said:
This is contrary to what I've been told by at least 15 reps at Microsoft
over
the years prior to the export when I was dealing with the corruption.
Anyway, it doesn't matter at this point, that act was taken 1-2 years ago.
There is no going back. Now I am just looking for insight into the
strange
behavior of the import imposing styles on the notes field.

Russ Valentine said:
FWIW, this would never be a method for restoring a corrupted PST file.
Importing never restores data. It changes it, as you have proven once
again.
If you need to restore a damaged PST file that IRT can't fix, create a
new
PST and copy the data you need from the old to the new. Never use import.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Tier 3 Questions said:
When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was
not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K
contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call
with
me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after
if
I
could.

:

Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You
should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have
arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


message When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back
into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the
notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next
three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again,
on
the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply
unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either,
I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with
Styles,
this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in
an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was
released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and
the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd
like
to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate
export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style
settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times
unrelated,
so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles
are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I was on Office 2007. The export/import occurred very shortly after Office
2007 was released.

Diane Poremsky said:
so you are working with an export/import that occurred over 2 yrs ago? What
version of outlook were you using at the time?



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Tier 3 Questions said:
This is contrary to what I've been told by at least 15 reps at Microsoft
over
the years prior to the export when I was dealing with the corruption.
Anyway, it doesn't matter at this point, that act was taken 1-2 years ago.
There is no going back. Now I am just looking for insight into the
strange
behavior of the import imposing styles on the notes field.

Russ Valentine said:
FWIW, this would never be a method for restoring a corrupted PST file.
Importing never restores data. It changes it, as you have proven once
again.
If you need to restore a damaged PST file that IRT can't fix, create a
new
PST and copy the data you need from the old to the new. Never use import.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
message When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was
not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K
contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call
with
me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after
if
I
could.

:

Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You
should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have
arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


message When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back
into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the
notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next
three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again,
on
the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply
unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either,
I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with
Styles,
this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in
an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was
released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and
the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd
like
to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate
export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style
settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times
unrelated,
so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles
are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I understand. Just remember that PSS can tell you how things are _supposed_
to work. Microsoft has always imagined that it's import functionality works.
End users will tell how they actually do work. These groups are replete with
import mishaps.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Tier 3 Questions said:
This is contrary to what I've been told by at least 15 reps at Microsoft
over
the years prior to the export when I was dealing with the corruption.
Anyway, it doesn't matter at this point, that act was taken 1-2 years ago.
There is no going back. Now I am just looking for insight into the
strange
behavior of the import imposing styles on the notes field.

Russ Valentine said:
FWIW, this would never be a method for restoring a corrupted PST file.
Importing never restores data. It changes it, as you have proven once
again.
If you need to restore a damaged PST file that IRT can't fix, create a
new
PST and copy the data you need from the old to the new. Never use import.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Tier 3 Questions said:
When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was
not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K
contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call
with
me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after
if
I
could.

:

Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You
should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have
arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


message When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back
into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the
notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next
three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again,
on
the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply
unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either,
I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with
Styles,
this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in
an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was
released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and
the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd
like
to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate
export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style
settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times
unrelated,
so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles
are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Like Diane, followed your instructions in detail but also couldn't repro the
problem using Outlook's export/import process. Also did the
export/import multiple times with formatted and unformatted
Notes data to and from both CSV DOS and Windows file types. In every
case, all worked as expected so would seem that there is some missing
details.

Since import/export topics are of special interest for obvious
reasons, did you provide Microsoft any additional details that were not
provided in your post on how to repro the problem?(i.e. settings)
What bug "exactly" did Microsoft acknowledge vis-a-vis the "styles"
issue? Just seems strange that Microsoft seems to be able to repro the
issue at will but Diane and I can't if we're all working from the same info.

For whatever little else it's worth - there has never been a single
similar problem reported for data that ContactGenie programs have
imported which has involved a fair bit of importing over the years
by a lot of different people across all versions of Outlook.

Out of curiousity, is this something that you can replicate on
different machines or just the one you're currently using?

Karl

___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com




Tier 3 Questions said:
When I did it 2 years ago it would because of pst corruption that was not
remedied by scanpst. I have an absurdly large rolodex with over 10K
contacts
so this is sort of a major deal that it changed all my notes.

Not sure why you are not able to reproduce. Microsoft was on a call with
me
today and they were able to reproduce. I would attach before and after if
I
could.

Diane Poremsky said:
Why are you exporting to CSV only to import back into outlook? You
should
only export when you need it in a different format.

I can't repro it - everything looks fine here.

In tools, options, mail format, stationery and fonts, do you have arial
selected?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Tier 3 Questions said:
When exporting contacts from Outlook 2007 to CSV and importing back
into a
new PST or folder, the import does some very strange things to the
notes
field.

Try a test, just create 1 contact.
1. In the notes field, enter a couple lines of text, seperated by a
carriage
return.
2. A couple lines down, Type "Bulleted List" and then on the next three
lines enter the bullets "bullet 1," "bullet 2," and "bullet 3."
3. Last, another couple lines down, type "Numbered List" and again, on
the
following 3 lines, "number 1," "number 2," and "number 3.
4. Now export to CSV and then import into a new folder.

If your Outlook behaves the way mine does, it will actually apply
unwanted
styles (I know, I didn't know that styles existed in Outlook either, I
thought it was just a Word thing). For those unfamiliar with Styles,
this
is
preset font, size, color, paragraph size, etc. And it applies it in an
way
that does not seem to make any sense.

I notified Microsof of the problem the first month that 2007 was
released,
they acknowledged the bug and here we are about 2 years later and the
problem
still exists.

Does anyone have any insight into this problem? Specifically, I'd like
to
at least return the styles to the default arial 10. Can it be done
through
some style sheets somewhere, some normal.doc, some alternate
export/import
approach? Even better, if there is a location where these style
settings
reside, I'd like to modify them. Unfortunately, the styles for each
contact
seem to be sometimes related to one another and other times unrelated,
so
there are at least multiple places where these contact notes styles are
stored.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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