# alimail-contacts

Part of **ALIMAIL**

# Alibaba Mail Contact Management Console Guide

## Operations Overview

| Operation | Console Entry | Prerequisites | Description |
|----------|---------------|---------------|-------------|
| Convert TXT to CSV | Desktop (Excel/WPS) > Data tab > From Text | Office or WPS installed; TXT-formatted address book file available | Converts an exported Alibaba Mail address book from TXT to properly encoded CSV format |

## Operation Steps

### Convert TXT to CSV

**Navigation**: Desktop application (Microsoft Excel or WPS Spreadsheets) > Data tab > From Text

**Prerequisites**:
- Microsoft Excel or WPS Office installed
- TXT-formatted address book file exported from Alibaba Mail

1. Open Excel or WPS Spreadsheets, then go to the **Data** tab and click **From Text**  
   - Element: **From Text** (button) — located in the "Get External Data" group on the Data tab  
   - Notes: A file browser dialog will appear

2. In the file browser, select your TXT address book file and click **Import**  
   - Element: **Import** (button) — in the file selection dialog  
   - Notes: The Text Import Wizard window opens

3. In the Text Import Wizard, select **Separator Number (D)** and click **Next**  
   - Element: **Separator Number (D)** (radio) — in Step 1 of the wizard  
   - Notes: This indicates the file uses delimiters (not fixed width)

4. Set the delimiter to **Comma** and click **Next**  
   - Element: **Comma** (radio) — in Step 2 of the wizard under "Delimiters"  
   - Notes: Even though the source is TXT, Alibaba Mail exports use comma as field separator

5. In Step 3, select **General** for column data format and click **Finish**  
   - Element: **General** (radio) — in the "Column data format" section  
   - Notes: This preserves raw data without type conversion

6. In the "Import Data" dialog, choose **Existing worksheet** or **New worksheet**, then click **OK**  
   - Element: **OK** (button) — in the Import Data dialog box  
   - Notes: Data appears in the selected worksheet

7. Click **File** > **Save As**, then choose **CSV (Comma Separated) (*.csv)** as the file type  
   - Element: **Save As** (menu) — under the File menu  
   - Notes: Save the file with a .csv extension

8. Open the newly saved CSV file in **Notepad**, then click **File** > **Save As**  
   - Element: **Save As** (menu) — in Notepad’s File menu  
   - Notes: Required to fix character encoding

9. In the Save As dialog, change the **Encoding** to **ANSI** and click **Save**  
   - Element: **ANSI** (dropdown) — in the encoding dropdown at the bottom of the dialog  
   - Notes: This prevents garbled Chinese characters when re-importing into Alibaba Mail

## Common Questions

Q: Why do Chinese characters appear garbled after converting TXT to CSV?
A: The default UTF-8 encoding used by Excel/WPS may not be compatible with Alibaba Mail’s importer. Saving the CSV file in ANSI encoding via Notepad resolves this issue.

Q: Can I use this method with Google Sheets or LibreOffice?
A: This guide is validated only for Microsoft Excel and WPS Office. Other tools may handle delimiters or encoding differently and are not officially supported.

Q: What delimiter does Alibaba Mail use in its TXT export?
A: Despite the .txt extension, the file uses commas (,) as field separators, making it effectively a CSV file with a .txt extension.

Q: Do I need special permissions to export or import contacts in Alibaba Mail?
A: Exporting and importing contacts requires standard user access to the Alibaba Mail web interface. Admin rights are not needed for personal address books.

Q: Can I skip the Notepad step if my contacts contain only English characters?
A: Yes—if your contact data contains no non-ASCII characters (e.g., Chinese, accented letters), the ANSI re-save step is optional.

## Pricing & Billing

### Billing Model
This operation is free. No charges apply for exporting, converting, or importing contact data in Alibaba Mail.

### Free Tier
All contact management features, including export and import, are included at no cost for all Alibaba Mail users.

### Billing Notes
There are no usage-based fees or quotas associated with address book operations.