Imported address book info, not getting the display I expected.
Came out of Win10 mail, moved to Thunderbird. (Good decision). After much screaming and kicking I managed to get my address book info out to a text file, formatted as CSV. Very simple, 3 fields: firstname,lastname,emailname@emailaddrs comma delimited.
Used the Import function, aligned 3 fields with the input data, done. It created a file called "email contacts". All of the addresses came in. Then it got kind of strange. When I open the that file it only shows 2 columns. Col1 is "NAME", Col2 is "EMAIL" Col2 is correct but Col1 shows the emailname only snipped off of the full email address. If I open any entry in the address book with the EDIT button, the first name and last name are there, so the import worked. So the question is: How do I get the top level of the address book to display the firstname, lastname? Did I do something wrong on the import? I can't seem to find any way to add columns or re-arrange the display. The "select columns to display" menu doesn't have any choice that I recognize. I can re-format the source file any way I need to, is there a better structure for import? Advise needed.
Gekozen oplossing
That can be tricky and I have had the same problem. I think this link may address your issue. If not, let us know. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1275097
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Gekozen oplossing
That can be tricky and I have had the same problem. I think this link may address your issue. If not, let us know. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1275097
Nope. The import is not the issue, it is the display in the "address book" window. Looking at any entry in the "edit" mode shows that the import was successful. The first name and last name are in the right boxes and are correct from what was in the CSV file. Opening the address book is where the monkey wrench goes into the gears. There is only a single column in the address book window, and it is simply "NAME". I can fool it (I think) by adding a column in the CSV file that combines first and last name and then call it "NICKNAME" when I import it or something like that but that doesn't really solve the problem.
There seems to be no way from the dropdown menu that appears in the upper right corner of the address book window to add columns for first name and last name. Further the "NAME" choice is greyed out so I can't kill that off. It muddies further that it seems that something is parsing the email address field to extract everything to the left of the "@" and call it "NAME". That is just simply wrong (IMHO) or at least not what I wanted.
I am also not sure exactly what shows up at the receiving end of the email. Past history: What the receiver got was the firstname:lastname with the actual email address in brackets or hidden. That is at least kind of what I am hoping for.
On a scale of 1-10 this is maybe a 2 or 3. Not a disaster and I can live with it, just trying to "tune" things.
Just uncovered an item that I think will fix this. In the "Edit" window is a box labeled "Display name". If I put something in there it shows up in the address book window as "NAME".
I am going to hack the CSV file to add a column of first/last name and add that to the import. I will see but I think that may fix the problem,
OK, fixed. Did what I suggested, display now looks like I wanted it to.
Lots to learn here, still ongoing. On to the next gremlin. Still WAAAYYY better than Win10 mail.
Thank you for your time.
Thanks for the reply. I'm glad the issue is fixed.