My computer recently required a complete reinstallation during which my email program was changed from Outlook Express to Outlook. This resulted in my old Address Book now being located in Outlook. I wish to return to using Outlook Express, but I cannot find the Address Book file or any way to export the address book from Outlook to Outlook Express. The computer is running Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Migrating your address book from Outlook to Outlook Express is fortunately not a overly difficult task, but does take a few intermediate steps to get the data between the two applications. We will need to export the data from Outlook into a CSV text file, which contains all the fields and data within your address book. This CSV file will then be imported into Outlook Express, which should result in all your address book contacts being transferred into the Outlook Express address book. We will first embark on the export procedure. Open Outlook and go to the “File” menu > “Import and Export”. In the window that appears, select “Export to a file” then click “Next”. For the file type, select “Comma Separated Values (Windows)” and click “Next”. Select the folder you would like to export (in this case, you want to export the Contacts folder) and click “Next”. Finally, determine where you would like the file saved and the file name. I suggest you save the file to the Windows Desktop for easy reference. Then, click “Next” to map any custom fields and finally click “Finish” to commence the export procedure.

Once you have finished the export process, you should have a CSV file on the Desktop containing your Outlook address Book. We will now import this file into Outlook Express. Open Outlook Express then go to the “File” menu > “Import” > “Other Address Book”. In the list of address book types, select “Text File (Comma Separated Values)” then click the “Import” button. Select the address book CSV file located on the desktop and click “Next”. Finally, select the fields you would like to import and click the “Finish” button. Once the import process has finished, all the address book entries should be present in the Outlook Express address book.