How do I import my contacts into Capsule?

Yes, you can import contacts into Capsule in either vCard or CSV format.

Instructions are available for the following sources of data:

• for Outlook
• for Gmail
• for Apple Mail
• for Thunderbird
• for LinkedIn
• for Act!
• for a Spreadsheet or other CSV file

How do I import a single contact into Capsule?

You follow the instructions above How do I import my contacts into Capsule?, or key the information directly into Capsule by clicking Add new... > Person.

How do I undo an import?

Capsule allows you to create a list of all contacts loaded in the last import, which you then bulk delete:

• click on People and Organizations > List
• select Last Imported from the System Lists



• click on Delete Contacts.



Note: Delete cannot be undone. Once you save delete, your list of contacts cannot be restored.

Can I update existing contacts when I import into Capsule?

Capsule's import function doesn't allow you to update existing contacts. If you attempt to import a name that already exists in Capsule, the import function will automatically recommend 'ignore'. If you select 'import', Capsule will create a second contact record:

If you have only a few existing contacts you want to update, during the import you can select 'import' to create a duplicate contact and then manually merge the duplicate after the import is complete.

How can I prevent duplicate contacts being imported into Capsule?

Capsule will attempt to match all contacts that have the same name, and these will be shown as 'ignore'. You select 'import' if you want a duplicate or second record.

How do I get Capsule to import addresses or other data with the organization rather than person?

If you have a line in your CSV file that contains a person AND an organisation name, then Capsule will import fields such as phone number and address into the person's record and link the person to the organisation. If you prefer that some or all of the fields are imported into the organisation record, then you need to structure the CSV file so that:

1. Organisation records are listed first (consider creating a separate file for organisations and loading this file first before you import people/contacts)
2. Include the details you want to import into the organisation record such as address and phone number in the columns after the organisation name

The following example will import the address with the organisation, and email address with the person:

How do I import contact notes into Capsule?

When importing your contacts using the CSV import process you can also import notes. There are two options in the Assigned Field on the CSV mapping screen:

• Add as Note to History
  this will add one note from a single field into the history of the contact.

• Add history to contact

  This will add multiple notes from a single field into the history of the contact. For the import process to recognise each note, the field must be formatted as per the following example:

  === NOTE ===
  2010-01-01
  First interesting note
  
  === NOTE ===
  2010-03-20
  Second interesting note
                  

  Tips:

  • The note separator field must be formatted exactly as in the example without any extra or removed spaces.
  • The date element is optional.
  • Excel truncates fields to a relatively short limit of 16,000 characters. As a result Excel is unsuitable for generating CSV files with long note histories. OpenOffice supports a longer field length.
  • For better control over note importing, consider engaging a developer to import the notes via the Capsule API.

When I import a CSV file, why do question marks or strange characters appear in my contact details?

Capsule assumes that CSV files are in UTF-8 format which allows you to store detail about your contacts using characters from most of the world's languages. However some applications save files in a format specific to your location.

You can convert most of these files to UTF-8 format using a simple text editor. On Windows you can use Notepad, and on Mac OS X you can use TextEdit:

• Open the CSV file in your text editor
• Select 'Save As'... from the file menu
• On the Save dialog box select Unicode (UTF-8) from the text encoding menu

How do I export contacts?

To export a single contact from Capsule, go to the contact's page in Capsule and choose Actions for this Person > Export as vCard

To export a list of contacts from Capsule, go to People & Organizations > List and then choose an existing list or create a new list using your own filters. You can then either Export to CSV or Export to vCard.

To include note and email histories, see How do I export my account data including notes and emails?

How do I export my account data including notes and emails?

A single click export function is provided in Capsule and can be initiated by an account administrator by going to Settings > Export. The export function generates a single ZIP file and emails it to you. The zipped file contains CSV files for your contacts, opportunities and cases, including a history of emails and notes.