hi we have large number of contacts in excel sheet and we need to install them to our exchange server contact list how we can achieve this in details? thanks

If you mean the GAL, then I strongly recommend that you don't. Every time that I have done this, the client has asked me to remove them from the GAL within 48 hours because most of the end users don't care about the contacts and hate scrolling through them in the GAL to find someone in Accounts to send email to. Your best option is to import them in to a Contacts folder through Outlook (create a special folder for the task) then copy those contacts in to a Public Folder. The people who need access to them can then add the Public Folder as an Address Book and use them when sending email. You also have the problem of keeping the information up to date, as it requires permissions in the domain. Whereas a public folder can have permissions set to everyone so they can keep the information current in real time. The only exception would be Contacts being created for a parent company or similar, but then you still have the problem of keeping it up to date. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.

Hi, By the way, do you mean that you want to import contacts to be used in Global Address List? If so, you can use Csvde to import contacts into Active Directory. First, you need to save the contacts from Excel into CSV format. In CSV file, it needs the basic columns: objectClass, DN, proxyAddresses, mailNickname, displayName, Mail, targetAddress. Let me give you an example as following: DN,objectClass,displayName,proxyAddresses,mailNickname,mail,targetAddress "CN=user11,CN=Users,DC=w16,DC=com",contact,user11,SMTP:user11@elan.com,user1,user11@sina.com,SMTP:user11@sina.com "CN=user22,CN=Users,DC=w16,DC=com",contact,user22,SMTP:user22@elan.com,user2,user22@126.com,SMTP:user22@126.com "CN=bob11,CN=Users,DC=w16,DC=com",contact,bob11,SMTP:user33@elan.com,bob,bob1@sina.com,SMTP:bob1@sina.com Then you can use the following syntax to run the tool from a command prompt: csvde -i -f c:\filename.csv The above three contacts will be added to AD. I recommend you to test the process with a file containing only about 10 contacts. Check your results and then maybe step up to the next 100, then 1000, then the entire file. For more information, you can refer to the article ‘How to use Csvde to import contacts and user objects into Active Directory’. Hope this helps. Thanks Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

hi would you please send me an example of excel sheet on how to add columns of external email contact? thanks for your help

Hi, Sorry for your convenience. In my last reply, I have given an example. And you can refer. ThanksSophia Xu

hi thanks for your help i have another matter in exchange server 2003 : when i create new address list in recipients to contains specific contacts the address list shows all contacts the point is that i want each address list to show only specific contacts that i can choose from then specify group of users to access it so no matter how many address list i create when i add one contact, users in outlook when open the specified address list it shows all the contacts! if you need any more details please advice thanks