Import that office directory into your Blackberry
Sidin Vadukut -
Friday, July 17, 2009 8:15 PM
Two days ago one of our very resourceful admin staff emailed out a mammoth excel sheet with contact details of everyone in the national Mint network. It had names, extensions and mobile numbers.
And I don’t have to tell you how, in a newsroom environment, this sort of thing is pretty helpful. When you MUST have a quote from that someone in Kolkatta it helps to have the city bureau chief on speed-dial no?
So a lot of people have nice print-outs tacked up to their soft-padded cubicle walls for ready reference.
But if you have a Blackberry this is an intolerable offence. In this web 2.0 world, my friend, you are living a steam-powered life.
Let me tell you how you can painlessly upload all these contacts into your Blackberry in ten minutes without any form of formal education in engineering.
Step 1: Install Google Sync on your Blackberry. It is a tiny application that can sync all entries in your Google Contacts list and Google Calendar with the corresponding applications on your handset. You can get it here. (Works for non-Blackberry handsets as well. Investigate please.)
Step 2: Next you need to take the excel office telephone directory and format it in such a way that Google Contacts will accept it. To make things easier you can download a copy of a blank Google Contacts ready excel sheet here. Remember to save the excel sheet as a CSV file. It is the only format that Google Contacts will accept. (Look under File -> Save as.)
Step 3: Log in to Google Contacts or sign up to create an account. (Also how are things under that rock you live beneath?)
Step 4: Import the CSV file of the contacts you just created into Google Accounts. The software gives you the option of grouping the imported contacts. DO THAT. This way if you goof up later you can always delete them all in one shot.
Step 5: Once import is complete check the contacts to make sure that the details come in the proper fields.
Step 6: Now go the Google Sync app on your Blackberry and ask it to be nice and sync everything.
Step 7: Overjoyed, send money to blogger.
Drop comments if something didn’t work out according to plan. Also the good thing about Google Sync is that you can later add or subtract details from your contacts and the app will take care of changes. And it is pretty good at catching duplicates too.
So when I want to give my Editor a call I don't need to rifle through print-outs. All I need to do is punch in the first few letters in his name and VOILA! I immediately have the number of Sukumari Kuriakose!
Awesome. Wait...