Web sites based on SharePoint™ Team Services from Microsoft and Outlook 2002 both store lists of similar information, such as tasks, events, notes, journal entries, contact names, and more. The need to import data from Outlook to a SharePoint team Web site is based on your departmental or organizational needs. For example, a department may want to import data in order to combine all scheduled events from each team member's Outlook calendar into a team Web site. This would centralize the information and make it visible to the whole team.

Note  Outlook data changes and it does not automatically update the list you created in your team Web site. You must either delete the original list and re-import the data from Outlook to your team Web site or manually add the updates to the existing list.

You can currently import Outlook contact names from within an existing Contacts list on a team Web site; however, when importing long lists of contact names, you will have more control over the formatting of columns and data using the procedures in this article.

The following procedures enable you to export data from Outlook, modify the format of the data in a Microsoft Excel 2002 worksheet, and then import the worksheet into your team Web site.

Export data from Outlook and modify using Excel

Import data from an Excel spreadsheet to your SharePoint team Web site

Export data from Outlook and modify using Excel

In Outlook, do the following:

1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
2. In the Choose an action to perform box, select Export to a file and then click Next.
3. In the Create a file of type box, select Microsoft Excel, and then click Next.
4. The first time you export data from Outlook you are prompted to install the necessary
   translator that allows you to export the file. Click Yes when prompted to install.
5. In the Select folder to export from box, select the Outlook folder that contains the
   source of data (Tasks, Calendar, Journal, Notes, Contacts, etc.) that you want to export, and
   click Next.
6. In the Save exported file as box, do one of the following:
7. 
   
   • Type the folder path and file name — for example C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\filename.xls — to the location where you want to save the data.
   • Click Browse to navigate a folder path to where you want to save the data, and then type a file name in the Browse dialog box.
     
8. Click Map Custom Fields to specify the column headings and data that you want to appear on the team Web site.
9. Click and drag the values of interest from the source file on the left into the destination field mapping list box on the right.
10. Click OK, and then Finish.
    
    

    Note   If you are exporting Tasks or Appointments, you are prompted to specify a range of dates.
    

11. Open the Excel spreadsheet you saved, format the column headings differently from the rest of the spreadsheet, and then save as a Web page.

Notes

• SharePoint Team Services interactive lists use all the rows from an exported spreadsheet as items in the list and assigns new column titles such as Field 1, Field 2, and so on. To prevent this and preserve your headings, format the first row of cells differently from the other rows. For example, format the first row with bold text and keep all other rows with normal text.
• The first column of the spreadsheet you import cannot be empty or contain a null value, because the first column is used to create the list of links in the team Web site.
• Format numeric information such as dates, telephone numbers, or postal codes as text to prevent a grouping symbol from appearing in the number: for example, 2,002 instead of the year 2002.

Import data from an Excel spreadsheet to your SharePoint team Web site

From your SharePoint team Web site, do the following:

1. On the top link bar, click Create.
2. On the Create Page page, click Import Spreadsheet.
3. In the Name and Description area, type a name and description for the list.
4. In the Import from Spreadsheet area, click Browse to locate the spreadsheet with the data you exported, and then click Open.
5. In the Navigation area, click Yes if you want a hyperlink to this list to appear on the Quick Launch bar.
6. Click Import.
7. The Import to SharePoint List dialog box appears and the Excel worksheet opens. To
   specify the cells that you want to import, do the following:
8. 
   
   1. Click the button next to the Select Range box to minimize the size of the Import to SharePoint List dialog box.
   2. Click the upper left cell of the Excel spreadsheet and drag through the cells that you want to import.
   3. Click Import.