What Happened To Software Documentation?

[jyl]

Argh. Frustrating hour trying to upload a few hundred contacts from Excel to Google Contacts. Not from another contact app, but from Excel.

Basically the idea is, make a CSV file and import to Google Contacts. But what headers and fields will Google recognize? The biggest internet company in the world can't be bothered to provide any official guidance, at least none that you can find via Google. Various individuals have put up tutorials, made sample CSV files available, posted YouTube videos. So you have search those out, figure how knows what they are talking about, follow the instructions, and find out that it doesn't work.

What happened to a software company providing clear and adequate documentation for its product? When did companies decide that users should just figure it out for themselves and share solutions that might or might not work?

Have had the same complaint with Parallels and with a remarkable number of specialist, very expensive financial applications. For the latter, I'm convinced the idea is that if they can force you to contact support all the time, they can have more opportunities to upsell you a new module.

[id10t]

Every time I've written software to read a CSV I grab the file, then ask user if it contains column headers. If so, I display column headers and ask user to map to hte columns I use. If not, I display first row of data and ask for map.

sj@darkstar ~ $ man google contacts
No manual entry for google
No manual entry for contacts
sj@darkstar ~ $

Looks like you are SOL

[rockfan4]

Looks like google will either import or export vcard, outlook csv or google csv. So I exported a contact from google to a google csv, just to see what the fields are - here they are, in order as exported:

Name
Given Name
Additional Name
Family Name
Yomi Name
Given Name Yomi
Additional Name Yomi
Family Name Yomi
Name Prefix
Name Suffix
Initials
Nickname
Short Name
Maiden Name
Birthday
Gender
Location
Billing Information
Directory Server
Mileage
Occupation
Hobby
Sensitivity
Priority
Subject
Notes
Group Membership
E-mail 1 - Type
E-mail 1 - Value
Phone 1 - Type
Phone 1 - Value
Phone 2 - Type
Phone 2 - Value
Address 1 - Type
Address 1 - Formatted
Address 1 - Street
Address 1 - City
Address 1 - PO Box
Address 1 - Region
Address 1 - Postal Code
Address 1 - Country
Address 1 - Extended Address
Address 2 - Type
Address 2 - Formatted
Address 2 - Street
Address 2 - City
Address 2 - PO Box
Address 2 - Region
Address 2 - Postal Code
Address 2 - Country
Address 2 - Extended Address

[rockfan4]

Outlook csv fields:

First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Title
Suffix
Initials
Web Page
Gender
Birthday
Anniversary
Location
Language
Internet Free Busy
Notes
E-mail Address
E-mail 2 Address
E-mail 3 Address
Primary Phone
Home Phone
Home Phone 2
Mobile Phone
Pager
Home Fax
Home Address
Home Street
Home Street 2
Home Street 3
Home Address PO Box
Home City
Home State
Home Postal Code
Home Country
Spouse
Children
Manager's Name
Assistant's Name
Referred By
Company Main Phone
Business Phone
Business Phone 2
Business Fax
Assistant's Phone
Company
Job Title
Department
Office Location
Organizational ID Number
Profession
Account
Business Address
Business Street
Business Street 2
Business Street 3
Business Address PO Box
Business City
Business State
Business Postal Code
Business Country
Other Phone
Other Fax
Other Address
Other Street
Other Street 2
Other Street 3
Other Address PO Box
Other City
Other State
Other Postal Code
Other Country
Callback
Car Phone
ISDN
Radio Phone
TTY/TDD Phone
Telex
User 1
User 2
User 3
User 4
Keywords
Mileage
Hobby
Billing Information
Directory Server
Sensitivity
Priority
Private
Categories

[Vipergrün]

There are template out there. I recently went through this exercise..

[jyl]

Thank you very very much.

I have been trying to upload a CSV with just five columns: Name, E-mail 1 - Type, E-mail 1 - Value, Address 1 - Type, Address 1 - Street. Create in Google Docs, export to Google CSV, upload to Google Contacts, no worky. Contacts picks up Name and nothing else.