We recommend using Microsoft Excel (Mac or PC) to create a Comma Separated (delimited) Value file (any .CSV file format will work). And Google Spreadsheet - downloaded as Comma Separated Values - will also work on either a Mac or PC. Create your list of contacts to be imported by putting their 10-digit Mobile # in column A, followed by their First Name in column B, and then their Last Name in column C. Column D is an optional Date Added field that can help you track when this contact first became a customer. If your Import list does not contain a Date Added field for a particular contact, then it will be given the default value of today’s date. Be sure to SAVE AS a Comma Separated Value .CSV file. We recommend creating your import list in a spreadsheet program like MS Excel because it will add the Commas for you when you SAVE with the .CSV format. NOTE: When working with a spreadsheet program, you should remove any Commas that happen to be inside the actual data columns.

 

You can also use Windows Notepad, WordPad or Microsoft Word to create a Plain Text-Only Document .TXT file (use ANSI, Windows, or MS-DOS encoding, but not Unicode on a PC). If you use TextEdit on a Mac, be sure to go to the Format Menu and click ‘Make Plain Text‘ so you can save a Plain Text .TXT file (use Unicode UTF-8 or Western-Mac OS Roman encoding). Create your list with only one contact per row - with their information this order: Mobile #, First Name, Last Name, and Date Added (which is optional), with a Comma Separating each field. Be sure to SAVE AS a Plain Text-Only Document .TXT file.

 

Unlike MS Excel, which automatically adds Commas for you between the fields when you SAVE, Text editors will not add any Commas - you will have to add them manually. Your data will look like this:

 

987-654-3210, Mary, Singh, 04-20-2010

234-567-8901, Luis, Gonzalez, 07-30-2011

 

All of the Mobile # and Date Added formats shown in the picture above are OK. If any of these characters: + 1 ( ) - . appear in the Mobile # field (which is column A for spreadsheets or before the 1st comma for text editors), they will be ignored. The Date Added field (which is column D for spreadsheets or after the 3rd comma for text editors) can also appear in any MM-DD-YYYY format (M-DD-YY, M/D/YY, etc). If a new contact’s First or Last Name is missing on your list, then that field will be left blank in the Phonebook.

 

Let’s say your boss gives you an electronic list of contacts with their Mobile #’s and asks you to import them into the Messenger so that you can send them all a text message. In some rare circumstances (like if your boss works on a PC, but you work on a Mac), the file may fail to import. This will happen if the file has some strange, incompatible formatting that was inadvertently saved inside it by some other program. The best way to import a file like this would be to open the source file that was given to you, select all the contacts, then Control+C (or Command+C on a Mac) to Copy them all to your Clipboard. Then on your computer, open your MS Excel (or if the original is a text file, open your Windows Notepad or Mac’s TextEdit program), go to your File Menu and click NEW to create a new file. Then Paste the data into the new file and Re-Save it on your computer with the appropriate .CSV or .TXT formatting. Now the file should import successfully.

 

 

Import File Size Limits

 

Your import file size is limited to 150 Kb - which is about 3,000 contacts. We recommend importing only 1,000 contacts at a time, since it takes our servers about one minute for every 1,000 Mobile #’s - to confirm that there are no duplicates. After you press the Import button, you will see the busy cursor rotating on your screen for up to 3 minutes. Don’t worry, that’s normal, the iViP servers are just processing your list and will continue to do so, even if you Log-out. When your Team’s Phonebook size reaches a total of 5,000 contacts, the import file size will be reduced to 8 Kb - which is about 200 contacts at a time. This helps keep your Phonebook from growing too large. Keeping more than 7,000 contacts in your Phonebook is not recommended since it will take longer to open and reload. It is best to only import active customers that you regularly do business with. Dumping a whole bunch of old, inactive contacts into your Phonebook will use up valuable room that you might want to reserve for your more profitable accounts. So choose wisely which contacts you would like to invite onto your company’s text messaging service.

 

When to Set the Overwrite Existing? and Mark as Selected? Options to ‘YES’

 

After opening the Import Contacts box, you will see two options - Overwrite Existing? and Mark as Selected? If you are importing new contacts into the Messenger, then leave these two options on their default ‘NO’ setting. After a year or so, you may begin to notice that some of the names in your Team’s Phonebook have changed. You may want to obtain a recent copy of your company’s active customer database from your IT manager. This would have the most up-to-date contact names for each Mobile # currently stored in your iViP Phonebook. Re-Import the new ‘Master List’ with the Overwrite Existing? option set to ‘YES'.  This will overwrite any existing, out-dated contact names with the new first and last names for each Mobile # being imported, essentially bringing your Phonebook up-to-date. Besides updating the contact names, when Overwrite Existing is set to ‘YES’, the contact’s Date Added field will also be updated, either with the default of today’s date or whatever date appears in Column D of your import list.

 

Use the Mark as Selected? option to quickly turn an external list of Mobile #’s into a list of pre-Selected contacts inside the Phonebook. Once you have imported your contacts with the Mark as Selected? option set to ‘YES’, be sure to click the Show [ALL] Selected Contacts button on the toolbar to display what you just imported in one pre-Selected list. You can then Assign them all to a specific user, or Drag and Drop them into a new My Group, or move them TO: the Messenger so you can immediately send them all a text (see previous article for more info). Sometimes after an import, you may see a contact row displayed twice or the Date Added column may still be showing the old value. Just click the Reload button on the toolbar to download a fresh copy of your Team’s Phonebook so you can see exactly what is stored on the server.

 

 

Extra Info (for the extra curious)

 

Whenever a Mobile # appears on an import list, it will be ALWAYS be added, except when it already exists in your Phonebook (since it can not be added twice). No duplicate Mobile # entries are allowed in the Messenger. This is why the number of contacts successfully imported will often times be less than the number originally on your list - because duplicate and non-valid Mobile #’s will be skipped. Brand new contacts will be Assigned to the TextMaster by default - meaning that they will be left Unassigned. Once a contact has already been imported, subsequent imports to Mark contacts as Selected or to bring the Phonebook up-to-date (Overwrite Existing) will not change who the contact is Assigned To. If a contact has been Deleted or has Opted Out of (Unsubscribed from) this service, re-importing them again will not change their Deleted or Unsubscribed status.