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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Address Book : Edit Multiple Cards
neodem - May 6, 2005 - 5:55 pm
I Imported abot 300 contacts into Address Book and they all have stuff in the note field that I want to delete. I can't figure out how to edit this field in bulk. I looked in the new Automator app and I figured out how to select all the cards, but I don't know what to do from there.. I want an action that says something like : delete from field (select field). Is there a way for me to create autimator actions?
Saxphile - May 7, 2005 - 7:25 am
Hi Vincent,
That's a really tough one there. I spent half an hour searching but still couldn't find a Mac-friendly solution.
To answer the easy question: You can create automator actions, but you need to write them in AppleScripts.
One solution I can think of, although not terribly elegant, is to export your entire address book into one group vCard. You can then open the vCard file in a text editor (e.g. SubEthaEdit or TextWrangler) and search and delete any line that starts with "NOTE". Then you delete everything in your Address book and reimport that edited vCard file back to Address Book.
The problem here is that you'll loss all the grouping information, so you'll have to assign them to groups manually (assuming you did assign them to groups). Also, backup, backup, and backup.
Let me know if you need more help.
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
That's a really tough one there. I spent half an hour searching but still couldn't find a Mac-friendly solution.
To answer the easy question: You can create automator actions, but you need to write them in AppleScripts.
One solution I can think of, although not terribly elegant, is to export your entire address book into one group vCard. You can then open the vCard file in a text editor (e.g. SubEthaEdit or TextWrangler) and search and delete any line that starts with "NOTE". Then you delete everything in your Address book and reimport that edited vCard file back to Address Book.
The problem here is that you'll loss all the grouping information, so you'll have to assign them to groups manually (assuming you did assign them to groups). Also, backup, backup, and backup.
Let me know if you need more help.
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
neodem - May 7, 2005 - 12:32 pm
Thanks Charlie.. I was thinking that I would try to export them as a group of cards, but I found that it's not possible and I'd have to do it as one card as you suggested. I came up with the problem after doing a big import and then organizing them in groups.. I may just start again and before I import them into address book I'll paste them into excel and clean them up a bit first..
Thanks for trying!
Thanks for trying!
Saxphile - May 7, 2005 - 4:49 pm
Hi Vincent,
I'm Tiger, which does have the option of exporting everything into one group vcard, so I assumed Panther does, too. Sorry about the confusion. In that case you might want to work with your original file. Sorry that I couldn't be more helpful.
Cheers,
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
I'm Tiger, which does have the option of exporting everything into one group vcard, so I assumed Panther does, too. Sorry about the confusion. In that case you might want to work with your original file. Sorry that I couldn't be more helpful.
Cheers,
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
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