Move Lotus Notes Contacts to Outlook Express Contacts Manually

Excel files are generally used for maintaining contents that are meant to be managed in a tabular format. The tabular structure of Excel files encourages manageability, which promotes easier access and manipulation of data. Microsoft Office offers the application in its suite of applications meant for organizational purposes. This goes out for reading and carrying the contents. However, the origin of such content is usually an email client from which a user requires separating their data like; contacts mostly. Thus, Excel sheets are considered best for the respective purpose having a tabular structure for organized storage. As far as email client are concerned, the next segment of the blog explains where the need to transfer Excel to Lotus Outlook Express contacts comes from.

Lotus vs. Outlook Express - Excel as the Mediator

Notes and Outlook Express are entirely different applications. Outlook Express is a bygone application that was a default provision made by Microsoft in Windows XP and earlier OS versions. Support for the client was discontinued by Microsoft in the previous year itself. However, on the other hand, Lotus Notes is the finest enterprise level of application suite. It doesn’t just offer emailing but also renders connectivity between organizations and provision for spreadsheets, presentations & more is also made.
Considering the contrast between the two applications, it is clear that they have nothing in common, yet when contacts need to be exchanged over from Notes to Outlook Express there is a common provision for the same.

Why Move Contacts to Outlook Express?

Despite the end of support for Outlook Express by Microsoft, a number of users still continue to use the service for the contacts they have made using the client. Therefore, the requirement of moving contacts from Lotus to Outlook Express can occur in a condition where both the clients co-exist in an environment. The continuation of Outlook Express on one machine and Notes on the other can bring forward such requirements.

How to Move Lotus Outlook Express Contacts?

Notes store its contacts in a proprietary address book format, i.e. names.nsf. This file is only readable using a Notes client and none else. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Outlook Express generates a Windows Address Book or WAB for storing the contacts.
Therefore, no common link between the two exists that could make the exchange of contacts possible. However, when the requirement has to be met by any means, the method doesn’t matter. Thus, the export of contacts as a CSV file from IBM Notes can help in the condition.

1. Export Contacts as CSV file (Comma Separated Values)
2. Move the CSV file on the machine configured with OE (Outlook Express)
3. Using Import facility of Outlook Express (for Address Book) move the contacts from the CSV file

NOTE: CSV files are accessible using Microsoft Excel application and are a similar storage file. The only difference is CSV stores data separated by commas while an Excel file is structured in a tabular format.
Conclusion:
CSV being the only common link between the two is used as a medium of moving Excel contacts to Outlook Express.