see my notes here http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/importing-csv-files.html you will probably need to tidy up the million or so fields that Outlook exports to a half a dozen.

I read your notes, but they don't seem to apply specifically to my situation.

I'm importing the contacts from outlook.com into a csv file. There is not even an option for an email address on the Record Data side for me to realign the Address Book field to ...

OK, I created an OutlookContacts.csv file from my Hotmail account and tried to import it in the usual way, and found, like you, there was no email address in the 'Record data to import' column. So, I opened the csv in a csv editor (CSVed) and found that the E-mail Address is in column 48 of a 56 column file. I deleted all the unnecessary columns to make it a 16-column file. After realigning the records up and down and checking the boxes for the relevant fields, the new csv file imported perfectly.

I guess TB has a limit on the number of columns that are read during the import.

THANK YOU for hanging in there with me in order to replicate the problem. I appreciate it very much!!