Why isn't there a vcard editor around???

[trigger]

And I mean a contacts program that just reads and writes vcard files? Every program only imports and exports those files, but I have yet to find one that just reads and modifies them....

Peter

[clif_notes]

Hi Trigger,

Good question. Here's a possible answer. A Vcard reader and writer is built into every Windows system that Microsoft makes.

What's it's name?
Windows Address Book

Trying going to [START] [RUN] and enter the command "wab" (without the quotes).
You should see the Windows Address Book.

Now, if you double click a vcard, it will pop up in a little window that's actually a part of WAB.  If you want you can add the vcard to your address book (WAB).

If you have an entry in your WAB and you want to turn it into a Vcard, just select the entry in your address book and go to File / Export / Vcard and you will be able to write it out to a vcf file.

Naturally, you can change any of the entries in your address book and add new ones. They can always be exported to a vcf file. Hence you can in essence, "edit" a vcf.

So, I'm guessing that's why nobody has ever bothered to make a stand-alone vcf creator that I'm aware of.  Almost every email client supports importing and exporting them, as you mentioned, and it's almost the same as "editing" them.

Have fun!

Clif

[trigger]

Well, if you consider importing, opening and exporting, saving there are a lot of vcard editors around... People could put their energy in better programs I guess.

Thanks.

Peter

[lanux128]

if you're still interested, here's one program that does that..

vCardOrganizer

• Create and Modify vCards direcly in the .vcf format • Full Drag & Drop Support • Full Clipboard integration with explorer interface • vCard photo and logo Support • Merge and Split vCard Collections • Backup and Restore vCards • Tools to find duplicates contacts and join results, add formatted names, manage phone prefix • Print and Print Preview of the entire vCard folder or of a single vCard • vCards Groups and Extensions • Just one click away from Skype

• requires .NET Framework 1.1 • shareware (USD25.00)

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http://www.micro-progs.com/vcardorganizer/

[wilsonch]

I'm going to take a look at vcard organizer but my idea that brought me here is: I used to use a product now called Copy2Contact (formerly Anagram). It takes data that is in clipboard and puts it into a contact entry in Outlook or the Palm Desktop PIM or Blackberry, etc. But I would like this functionality to populate a vcf file (vcard file) that I could then load into any PIM I'd like (Google, whoever reads VCF files). So my idea is a clipboard-to-vcf utility that would (like Copy2Contact) do its best to put the free-form input into a contact form, except this utility would not be tied to any commercial product but would populate a generic vcf card.

[Curt]

-maybe you already (used to) have it, in C2C:

Highlight contact info in any open application...
and Instantly create a new contact, event, or task inside Microsoft Outlook!




... Grab Contacts, Leads, Tasks, and Appointments into Outlook®, Palm™ Desktop, or Agendus INSTANTLY from any text on your screen, such as an e-mail signature, meeting invitation, or web search results.

But of course, their prices are blatant, and "of course" you might need the most pricey one:
Personal / Pro: $40 / $80 once, plus $10 / $18 per year for support&updates.

Copy2Contact PRO includes these PRO features not found in Copy2Contact Personal:

    * Auto-capitalization
    * Auto-formatting of phone numbers
    * Outlook folder and template selection
    * Business Contact Manager support
    * Palm category selection
    * Configurable universal hotkey
    * Share your settings

http://www.copy2contact.com/c2c-outlook/

[SKA]

Another two programs similar to C2C are:

1] Loquisoft's ContactCopy(USD 49.95 perpetual license, per PC):
http://www.loquisoft.com/?page=7
ContactCopy – transferr contact info from virtually any source to Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, etc., with just a mouse click

contactCopy automatically recognizes the country of contact data based on address format, the language used in address elements and a place-name database. contactCopy automatically adds
the country to the postal address , the country code to phone and fax numbers (ideal for synchronization with mobile phones)

For developers:
http://address-parser.com/
RecogniContact/Web – RecogniContact as a Web service
RecogniContact/COM – RecogniContact as a Windows COM component

2] AddressGrabber Std/Business (USD 69.95/129.95) :
http://www.egrabber.com/
must pay for every point upgrade -

The OP leads me to think - which non-MS addressbook/ PIM/contact Mgr works well with vcf and contact copy solutions like those above ?

None of these copy contact solutions have their own addressbook.

SKA

[Nello Lucchesi]

Have you looked at this project:

http://code.google.com/p/vcard-editor/