Google Gmail - Export Your Contacts

SUMMARY: Need to access your Gmail contacts inside a different e-mail program, or just want them saved on your machine for safe keeping?

After reading and sending a lot of e-mail through Google's Gmail service you may begin to build up a large contacts list.

While this information is stored on Gmail's servers, what if you would like to import the contacts list into another e-mail service, e-mail software on your machine, or a personal contact manager? Or, what if you just want to save the contacts on your machine for safe-keeping?

1. Click the "Contacts" link near the left of the page.

2. Your contacts should appear. Near the top-right of the page, click the "Export" link.

3. A popup window should appear asking which file format to use to export your contacts (if it doesn't appear, check your firewall and/or popup blocking software). Either choose Google CSV if you only plan on copying contacts between Gmail accounts, or Outlook CSV to import the data into Microsoft Outlook. Other software programs may be configurable to read one of the two formats.

4. Click the "Export Contacts" button.

5. Depending on your browser settings, the CSV file may:

* Open inside Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Excel

* Automatically download to your specified downloads folder

* Result in your web browser asking you what to do with the file.

Press the "print" button on your browser or select "File" - "Print" to print this tip. Then, return to Google Gmail - Export Your Contacts