Importing CSV files into Excel
Problem: When you double-click the CSV file that you have created with Export Address Book, Excel starts and then loads the file. But when opened, it isn't parsed by Excel. Instead of the comma-separated values being in different columns, every record appears in a single column.
Solution: The trick is, not to open the file in Excel but to import it.
Step 1
Launch Excel and choose File > Import… from the menubar. This window will appear:
Click on the "CSV file" radio button and then on the "Import" button to proceed to select the CSV file that Export Address Book has created. Make sure, that the data file has the file suffix ".csv".
Step 2
The Text Import Wizard will appear:
Make sure that "Delimited" is selected. Then click on the "Next" button to proceed.
Step 3
Make sure to select "Comma" as the delimiter and double quotes as the text qualifier:
Click on the "Next" button to continue.
Step 4
If necessary, a special data format can be assigned to columns.
In this example, I want to import ZIP codes. Leading zeros should be preserved. To achieve the same when you import your data, click on the corresponding column and switch it's data format from "General" to "Text". Do the same for date columns (choose "Date" here, of course).
Click on the "Finish" button and you are done.