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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files Apps
When you use Address Book's File: Export menu, or the drag-and-drop method to export vCards, this creates only one exported vCard that contains all of the vCards that were selected when you exported/dragged-and-dropped. As you may know, this casuses problems when trying to import that vCard (and the entire contents) into some applications, and to Windows Exchange and/or Outlook.

The magic solution is:
  1. Select the contacts you wish to export.
  2. Press and hold Caps Lokc and the Option key.
  3. Now drag and drop the selected vCard(s) to a folder on the Desktop (do not release Caps Lock and Option keys until you drop the vCards).
When you do it this way, all the selected vCards will be copied to individual files. Hope this helps!

[robg adds: When I read this, it didn't make any sense to me -- the Caps Lock key is an "on/off" key, not a modifier key. Nonetheless, it works as described in both 10.3 and 10.4. I tried every other combination of modifier keys, but only Caps Lock plus Option resulted in individual vCards in the Finder. Press and hold them before starting to drag, otherwise this trick won't work. Finally, if (like me), you happen to have two or more identically-named contacts, you won't be able to use this method -- the Finder will complain about one of the copied items being busy. To work around this, just manually rename the contacts such that their names are unique.

October 4 Update: Based on the comments below, I went back and did some more testing. Here's what I found. For each of these cases, I selected names within the listed group (i.e. not the entire group):
  • With "All" selected: Option dragging gets you individual cards.
  • With a "normal" group selected: Option dragging gets you individual cards.
  • With a "smart" group selected: Option dragging gets you one combined card. You need to use Caps Lock plus Option dragging to get individual cards.
When I tested yesterday, I was inadvertently on a smart group, not my All group or any normal group. Sorry for any confusion!]
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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files | 6 comments | Create New Account
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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files
Authored by: ratpH1nk on Oct 03, '05 06:49:57AM

Just as I suspected, simply holding down the option key works for me. No need to touch the option key.

-pH1nk



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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files
Authored by: ratpH1nk on Oct 03, '05 06:51:29AM

This is 10.4 and it should be "no need to hold down 'caps lock' key"

Sorry,

-pH1nk



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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files
Authored by: Lou Kash on Oct 03, '05 07:17:35AM

Export with Drag'n'Drop in 10.3.9:

- a group exports as a multi VCard

- a group with Caps Lock + Option exports as separate vCards (as described above)

- selecting the entries *inside* a group and holding only Option exports separate vCards as well, without Option key you'll get one multi vCard again

So the difference is where you start to drag.



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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files
Authored by: jfa643 on Oct 03, '05 08:46:14AM

I can achieve the same result by Option-dragging, regardless of where I am. When a group is option-dragged, it is decomposed to its individual cards.

Joe



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Export a group of Address Book entries to distinct files
Authored by: rhowell on Oct 03, '05 03:29:37PM

I, too, can accomplish this with option-dragging alone.



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Leopard Method
Authored by: petervcook on Jan 13, '09 04:20:40AM

This no longer works in OS X 10.5. Instead there is an Automator action for exporting as vCards, it gives you the option to export as individual vCards.



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