Multi-Tech Systems FaxFinder V.34 Fax Servers FF Model Series - Manual (Page 60)

Chapter 3: FaxFinder Client Software Operation
Setting Up Address Books with CSV Files
Files in CSV format (comma separated values) consist of spread-sheet data presented in ASCII (plain
text) form. As such, the data can be transferred between different application programs. Many common
programs (like MS Excel and MS Outlook) can do both importing and exporting of CSV files.
The FaxFinder Client software can also do both importing and exporting of CSV files.
Typically, the reason a FaxFinder client-user would export his/her FaxFinder Address Book into a CSV file
format would be to share entries with another FaxFinder client-user. A FaxFinder client-user might also
import a CSV file from another application (for example, both MS Outlook and MS Excel files can be
exported into CSV format) in order to expand his/her FaxFinder Address Book.
To import a CSV file, a template file is needed to map the fields of the source file into the appropriate
corresponding fields of the destination database. For client-to-client imports, a standard template file is
included with the FaxFinder client software making such imports very easy. There is, after all, a one-to-
one correspondence of the data fields.
When importing to your FaxFinder Address Book from other sources, there generally will not be a one-to-
one correspondence between the data fields and so a customized template will be needed to map the
data fields properly.
Suppose you had a list of potential customers exported to CSV format from an MS Excel spreadsheet
and, for each customer, there were 10 fields of data, including their names and fax numbers. To import
this information into the FaxFinder Address Book (which has 9 fields of data in an established order), you
would have to specify that each customer name and fax number from this CSV file gets transferred into
the Name and Fax Number fields of the FaxFinder Address Book. Other fields from the customer list
might fit into other FaxFinder Address Book fields, as well, but some fields may not fit.
Multi-Tech Systems, Inc. FaxFinder Client User Guide 60