As a travelling contractor, I have used Hotmail for a number of years. In that time I have built up the details of a number of Contacts in Hotmail. It has often bothered me that there is a way to import contacts, but no way of getting the contacts out in any useful format. For example, I often need to do a mail shot and hand coding all my Contact's details just seems unnecessary. Today, however, I discovered that there is a way.
What you do is upgrade your account to Hotmail Plus. Then using Outlook Express you can export your Hotmail Contacts into a CSV file. Once done you simply cancel your Hotmail Plus account again claiming you didn't like it and claim a refund. But be warned, you only have a limited time to cancel. Also for a period of 30 days you Hotmail box will shrink in size to 25Mb.
The thing I found slightly less than obvious is how you get Outlook Express to Export your Contacts from Hotmail. To do this, follow these steps:
- Launch Outlook Express
- Ensure that you are connected to Hotmail.
- Select the Tools/Address Book menu item.
- In the Address book that appears, select the Tools/Synchronise Now menu item. This gets all of your Hotmail Contacts to Outlook Express' Address book.
- Finally select the File/Export/Other Address book menu item. This allows you to save you Hotmail Contacts as a CSV file that can be imported into just about anything.