A few people have asked whether it’s possible to import contacts from their Mac Address Book. The answer is yes, but it’s not immediately straightforward, so we figured we’d post the steps on how to successfully accomplish this.

To Export from Mac Address Book:

1. Open Address Book version X.0 or greater.
2. Highlight the Group labeled “All” to view all of your entries, and tap the right arrow key to select an entry.
3. Select all of your entries by going to the Edit menu and selecting “Select All”.
4. From the File menu, select “Export vCard”
5. Enter a name for the file and a location where it will be saved.

Next, Import into Anyvite:

1. Click the “Import Contacts” button on the Address Book page.
2. Click the area that has the Plaxo and America Online logos. You may need to disable your popup blocker for this step.
3. When the Plaxo pop-up window appears, select the “Other” option.
4. Next, from the drop-down menu, select “vCard (.vcf)”, and select the file you created during the export process.
5. Click Next, and you should see a list of all of your contacts that you imported. Simply choose the ones you want to import into Anyvite, and click the next button.
6. The pop-up window should disappear, and the text box on the main Anyvite page should now be populated with your contacts. Click the “Invite Contacts” button and you’re done!

Hope that helps everyone who’s been trying to import from the Mac Address Book!

One of the top pieces of feedback we’ve been receiving is that we don’t display full names in the invitations, but rather the first part of the email address (unless a person has registered and updated their name). That primarily had to do with the way that we import contacts and utilize the concept of shared friends, which unfortunately restricted event creators from editing names on the guest list for an event.

In order to remedy this situation, we’ve introduced the concept of a personal address book (revolutionary huh? where you can import contacts with display names, and then edit or update any entries in your address book which may contain just an email address or an incorrect name. Then, the next time that you create an invitation and invite guests, the names will all show up correctly, and your guests won’t be struggling with who else has been invited.

We’re pretty excited about this updated feature as it allows much greater control over your invitation, and makes the experience significantly better for your guests. Even if you’re already a member, you can take advantage of the new importation feature for updating display names. All you have to do is go into the “address book” section and “add contacts”. Then re-add your contacts using your email account address book, or manually copy and paste addresses in. Just make sure they have the following format so the display names get pulled into Anyvite:

“Display Name” <abc@domain.com>

The site will automatically detect if you’re already friends with the person and just update the display name. You can then browse through your address book, and update any other entries which don’t have the proper display name.

We also now allow you to see the email addresses of the contacts you’ve imported. This should significantly help when determining who you want to invite to an event, and what the correct email address should be (usually personal or work). You can also view the primary email address of people who you are mutually friends with (they’ve accepted you as a friend). Now, we know that some people are very protective of their email address, and for good reason, so we have also implemented the ability to hide your email address from everyone who you are friends with. Just go to “Settings” and “Privacy” to update your settings.

Please let us know what you think of the new improvements to the site using either the feedback tab or emailing support@anyvite.com.