I guess this is possible. You can export the address book in .csv format and load that with Excel. However, what do you need a separate spreadsheet for in the first place? What's wrong with adding contacts directly in Thunderbird's address book?

Its for a customer of mine.... I tried to update the imported info in excel then tried to re-export the updated spreadsheet back into thunderbird and I couldnt get it to work. I just figured that seeing that I could export and import originally that I would still be able to with updated info but it wasnt pulling in the update information I didnt know if I was doing something wrong. She wants a mailing list and wants to be able to use an excel spreadsheet to continuously update and enter new contacts and then export them into thunderbird.

It might help to get the terminology straight. As far as Thunderbird is concerned, you export to a CSV file and import from a CSV file. If you go looking for "Export" when trying to read a CSV file into Thunderbird you'll be struggling.

Mailing Lists (in Thunderbird) and their counterparts in other email clients (e.g. "groups", "Distribution Lists") or address books are problematic. There is no standard for exchanging these between a client and a spreadsheet. You won't see your Mailing Lists in your CSV file; there is no way of representing subsets in the flat file data format that a CSV file offers.

You need to understand that a Mailing List in Thunderbird is merely a subset of the address book inside which it is stored. An entry in a Mailing List has to be present in the address book proper. So we can't export and manage Mailing Lists as entities separate from the address book.

Again we may have an issue with terminology. You say your client wants "a mailing list" but maybe a dedicated address book would actually be suitable. I've taken you literally, but you may not mean what Thunderbird calls a "Mailing List".

You can edit CSV files and then import them into Thunderbird's address book, but there may be some fussing about needed to get the columns into the right order. Perhaps you can explain in greater detail why it wouldn't work for you. The last time I tried it, ISTR that you cannot combine an imported address book (from a CSV file) into an existing address book; it will always force the creation of a new address book within Thunderbird. You could of course move the contents of the imported address book into an existing address book but you'll have to manually check for duplicates.

Your client may do better to use a Mail Merge facility that can read directly from a CSV file without involving Thunderbird's Address Book.

The customer wants to create a mailing list for herself in excel by using the contacts from Thunderbird. Then using the created excel sheet she wants to enter any new contacts and information and then re-export back into thunderbird, wanting thunderbird to update contacts and information. My suggestion to her was to create a mailing list in excel the way she wants and then manually update the contacts in thunderbird.

You can Export any address book (not 'All Address Books' as it is not a real address book) in .csv format which can be opened in MSEXcel.

It can be imported back into Thunderbird as an address book.

Strongely advise - if exporting the 'Personal Address Book', you save it as a different name, otherwise when it gets imported back it could end up with two 'Personal Address Books' - one is a default and cannot be removed although it can be edited. The other would show same name but it can be deleted. Having same name address books might cause confusion.

Mailing Lists can be exported in the same way, but they cannot be imported back as a Mailing List; they would be imported back as a new address book. So there is no point in messing about with Mailing Lists.

To be honest, it is much more time consuming editing MSExcel and then remapping it and making sure she doesn't get confused with new and old address books and then still having to amend all the Mailing lists.

It would be easier, quicker and logical to add contacts to address books and create Mailing lists in Thunderbird. After all, an email address from a received email can be added to an address book with a couple of clicks, then edit the contact details to add extra info. you do not need to do all this exporting and importing to add a contact.

Then export to a .csv file when it is required for other work and/or maybe for creating a backup file. This would mean never needing to import unless the backup was required.

Basically, she is doing it the wrong way round.

If she is looking to create Mailing Lists in thunderbird:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-create-and-use-mailing-lists-thunderbird

If she is looking to create a more personalised mailing then suggest she uses 'Mail Merge ' addon with an exported .csv file or address book.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/mail-merge/