In Outlook Contacts/Notes I extensively use text color, hilight color, Boldface, Larger/smaller type..in short, everything a .rtf file affords me. All of this information is saved in a .pst file.
I have been told this approach to data is “unusual” but it works for me.
I have a feeling that much of this will go away in a future version of Outlook. I’m also preparing for a possible transition to Thunderbird which doesn’t support .rtf entries to my knowledge.
When I export my Outlook Contacts to .csv and import the .csv file back into Outlook (on another computer) I get a very good idea how this (formerly rtf'd) information will look as text. Most of it is legible and readable but there are a number of special characters inserted to replace quote marks, Em dashes, etc. I expected this. In fact I thought I was going to encounter far more of these substitutions to account for every non-vanilla-text conversion I made (including commas, since they are the .csv delimiter character).
Opening the .csv file in Notepad++ provided a better view of this information, and adding Notepad’s Lint plugin even provided more clarity (esp. if you really like colors!) . I suspect changing Encoding to UTF-8 allows Notepad to understand a “flavor” of .csv that relates to how Outlook structures a .csv file. In other words, I’m convinced that Notepad++ “understands” the Outlook .csv export quite well and should be able to replace all the special characters (with the text they represent) and maintain the proper comma-separation Outlook requires to stick the data as text into the proper ‘boxes’.
Is there an easy way to get Notepad++ to generate a .csv file that Outlook can import that will do this?
I have been told this approach to data is “unusual” but it works for me.
I have a feeling that much of this will go away in a future version of Outlook. I’m also preparing for a possible transition to Thunderbird which doesn’t support .rtf entries to my knowledge.
When I export my Outlook Contacts to .csv and import the .csv file back into Outlook (on another computer) I get a very good idea how this (formerly rtf'd) information will look as text. Most of it is legible and readable but there are a number of special characters inserted to replace quote marks, Em dashes, etc. I expected this. In fact I thought I was going to encounter far more of these substitutions to account for every non-vanilla-text conversion I made (including commas, since they are the .csv delimiter character).
Opening the .csv file in Notepad++ provided a better view of this information, and adding Notepad’s Lint plugin even provided more clarity (esp. if you really like colors!) . I suspect changing Encoding to UTF-8 allows Notepad to understand a “flavor” of .csv that relates to how Outlook structures a .csv file. In other words, I’m convinced that Notepad++ “understands” the Outlook .csv export quite well and should be able to replace all the special characters (with the text they represent) and maintain the proper comma-separation Outlook requires to stick the data as text into the proper ‘boxes’.
Is there an easy way to get Notepad++ to generate a .csv file that Outlook can import that will do this?
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Win11 Home
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell Inc. Inspiron 16 7610
- CPU
- Dell Inc. 0FHWFD A01
- Motherboard
- Dell Inc. 0FHWFD A01
- Memory
- 16GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- 2.30 gigahertz Intel 11th Gen Core i7-11800H
- Sound Card
- Intel® Smart Sound Technology for USB Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- laptop (small) and 1 or 2 external monitors
- Screen Resolution
- -
- Hard Drives
- PC711 NVMe SK hynix 1TB 1.02 TB NVMe ANB2N582412102F0G_0001
- PSU
- -
- Case
- Laptop
- Cooling
- fan
- Keyboard
- External!
- Mouse
- External
- Internet Speed
- -
- Browser
- Chrome (Chrome profiles), Firefox (Bookmark Search Plus2), Edge (History page), Opera (annoying)
- Antivirus
- WinDefender
- Other Info
- Win11 Home 23H2 22631.3447
-
- Operating System
- Win10
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- self
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte B75M-D3H
- Memory
- 8068 MB Usable Installed Memory
- Graphics card(s)
- 2.30 gigahertz Intel 11th Gen Core i7-11800H
- Sound Card
- Intel® Smart Sound Technology for USB Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 3 Displays
- Screen Resolution
- n/a
- Hard Drives
- SSD and others (internal and external)
- Case
- Desktop
- Cooling
- Fan
- Mouse
- External
- Keyboard
- External
- Browser
- Chrome, Firefox, Tor, Brave, Opera, etc.
- Antivirus
- Win Defender
- Other Info
- Win10 & unfortunately OneDrive: Can't completely rid myself of this!!
