Data Entry and Updating Tools for Outlook

Click here to subscribe
to our biweekly
EMO newsletter
EMO back issues

Data Entry and Updating Tools for Outlook

This is a collection of tools useful for updating your Outlook Contacts folder. Among this list are tools that "grab" contact data from emails or web pages and create a contact for you. Others will create a contact using the senders display name and email address when you reply to email.

Like the Plaxo service, some of the add-ins will verify the email addresses in your contacts by sending out email messages to everyone in your contacts folder. If the recipient replies with updated information their contact is automatically updated. We don't recommend these services as a rule and many recipients consider this a form of spamming, especially if you use a tool that adds everyone you reply to, to your contacts folder.

Several other kinds of tools related to contacts are listed on their own pages:

Contact Management Tools

Telephony Tools -- including utilities to copy contacts to mobile phones and to use contacts with Caller ID

Print Labels and Envelopes for Contacts

Start a Letter from an Outlook Contact

Tools

AccuCard for Outlook	Keeps your Outlook contacts updated through a centralized database of all contacts from all AccuCard users, sending a quarterly message asking contacts to send in their updated information.
Actual Contacts for Outlook	Actual Contacts for Outlook is a Microsoft Outlook add-in for updating your address book. Select contacts and ACO will send them a message containing a form. The respondents will be able to update the data in your address book by filling out the form. The process uses only email forms and no data is stored on any other site.
Add Contacts	Add Contacts automatically adds e-mail addresses to the contact folder when you reply a message and/or send a new message. You can assign categories to the newly created contacts and you can choose any folder as the contact destination, either in your personal mailbox or in public folders on Microsoft Exchange server. When adding a contact, Add Contacts checks the folder for possible duplicates.
Add Email Address	Add-in for Outlook 2000 or later to automatically create Outlook contacts for people you send messages to, receive messages from, or reply to. Can add categories as it creates contacts. Does not trigger Outlook address security prompts. If you decide to purchase a Sperry Software utility, enter WD9BHK53 during checkout to receive a discount.
AddressGrabber	AddressGrabber enables easy capturing of address details from any Email, web site or document into Outlook with a click of a button and reduces data entry time. Just highlight the address and click on AddressGrabber. AddressGrabber also enables easy transfer of address details between Outlook and ACT! or Goldmine.
anagram	Converts text in virtually any Windows application into Outlook contacts, appointments, tasks, or notes.
ContactCopy	ContactCopy creates Outlook contacts from text containing contact information (like email signatures, contact data on websites, etc.) ContactCopy recognizes addresses and phone numbers from the USA and more than 20 European countries.
ContactGenie Importer	Import tool for Outlook contacts that lets you set up multiple field mapping templates to handle the Excel, Access, Visual FoxPro, dBase, or delimited text files that you import regularly. Can handle user-defined fields, import from Access queries or linked tables, and perform unattended imports on a schedule.
ContacTree	ContacTree is a contact organizer add-in for Microsoft Outlook that automatically generates organization charts of a contact's company for easy searching and navigation. Available in versions for personal and enterprise use, ContacTree provides very simple new intuitive input forms with extensive auto-complete functions. By splitting contact data into linked levels of Contact, Contact's Manger, Organization and Location, it also becomes easy to develop and maintain records over time.
Contacts Verifier	Checks the validity of email addresses in Outlook 2000 or later using DNS and SMTP techniques. Can also validate addresses used in a Word mail merge.
Data Fields Manager for Outlook	Data Fields Manager for Outlook allows users to perform mass modifications to contact fields in Outlook. You can add, remove, capitalize, build, clear, paste, trim and much more with the click of a button. Compatible with Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007. Version 6.1
Emergency Preparedness Software	Emergency Preparedness Software, EPS, provides Business Continuity and sustained communications during and after a disaster. It ensures that users in an organization have up-to-date contact information available on their BlackBerry handhelds and other wireless devices that synchronize with the desktop. BlackBerry Software Trial Available.
eReturn Detective	Monitors bounced messages to notify you which contact may need updating. For Outlook 2000 or later.
LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar	Create missing contacts in your Outlook address book by using this tool to scan your email correspondence for contacts with whom you have communicated. Several options let you configure how the scan is performed and which contacts to create. Also, convert signatures in emails into Outlook contacts without re-typing. (Free)
ListGrabber	Create Outlook contacts (or entries in several other applications) from address lists in web pages.
Mailing List Service	Adds senders of selected email messages to the Contacts folder or a separate mailing list text file. Can also export from contacts to a mailing list file.
More Productive Tools for Outlook	More Productive Tools for Outlook is an innovative tool that expands your ability to get information into and out of Outlook quickly and effectively. More Productive Tools provides you with a vast array of capabilities to make your Outlook use more productive and efficient. Supports Outlook 2000, 2002 (XP), 2003 and 2007. Currently Free. Beta
Nobex Contacts	When you receive an email with the sender's contact information in a signature block (phone, fax, web address, title, etc.), Nobex Contacts for Microsoft Outlook technology analyzes the email, finds the block, parses it, and pops up a notification to tell you it was found. You click it, and Nobex Contacts creates a new item for the sender in your Contacts address book. It shows you the contact information for verification, you click Save, and that's it. No more going back to find contact information in old emails, no more cutting and pasting contact information fields, no more typing info manually.
Outlook Company Updater	A Microsoft Outlook form to update information for all Contact records related to a particular company. Free.
Plaxo Contacts	Send and receive contact updates. If you exchange contacts with other Plaxo users, your contact records for those users stay up-to-date automatically. Free.
Pocket Contact Synchronizer	Copies items in one direction, from any contacts folder -- public or private -- into your default Contacts folder, putting the name of the original folder in the Categories field. Mainly intended for ActiveSync users who want to sync contacts from a public folder, but useful also to non-PDA users who want to see several folders' worth of contacts in their main Contacts folder. Free from Microsoft for Outlook 2000 or 2002 only, but may work with Outlook 2003.
Relationship Secure	Request updated information from Outlook contacts and process responses automatically. Remind you about contact-related events and send email greeting cards. Keep track of contacts you haven't heard from in a while. All data is local to Outlook, with nothing stored on an external server.
Remove Country Utility	Removes the country you specify (usually your own) from all items in the Contacts folder, to save space when synchronizing with a PDA. Free
Reorder Contacts Form	A Microsoft Outlook form to update Contacts records so that they display in the Address Book sorted as you choose -- by last name, first name or the FileAs field. Free
Resolve E-mail Address Utility	Resolves all e-mail addresses in Contacts to ensure that they appear in your Outlook Address Book. Use after importing from a database or .csv file. Free.
ResumeGrabber	ResumeGrabber is a resume data entry tool that intelligently extracts contact details and resume in any format and creates a new contact in Outlook and attaches the resumes to the contact.
Signature2contacts	Capture name and addresses from e-mail signatures, Outlook items, a web page or a document and automatically create a Contact. Version 1.11.2176
Subscription Manager	The Subscription Manager add-in (SUM) is designed to automatically add to or delete subscribers from Microsoft Outlook 2000/XP distribution lists based on e-mail message with the command SUM in its "Subject" field. Subscription Manager is the first mailing list management software for Microsoft Outlook.
Updater for Outlook	Updater for Outlook allows you to perform data manipulations on any Outlook object including custom (user-defined) fields and forms and the multi-valued Keywords data type.
vCardMail	CGI script, written in Perl, to take information entered by web site visitors and mail it as a vCard that Outlook can open.
vReader	Use vReader to create Outlook 97 contacts from vCards.
WEB eConvert	Convert information submitted via web page forms to Outlook contacts automatically.
Web Response Grabber	Automatically downloads emails from web forms and third party sites, processes them into MS Outlook and assigns follow-up whenever a lead fills up a Web Form on your web site. Send an Auto-Response Email to the incoming email and also Distribute the Lead email among your Lead Processing Team. Can also create contacts from structured text files, in addition to mail messages.