What is the key difference between sending someone your Outlook contact and business card

Both CSV and vCard formats are used as a common way of transferring contacts between programs and services.

However, there are fundamental differences between CSV and vCard. When transferring contacts, it is important to understand in what ways these two common formats differ and when it is most appropriate to use one or the other.

CSV files – what’s hot and what’s not

CSV, also called comma- or character-separated values is a relatively simple format designed to store textual and numeric data [i.e. contact names, phone numbers, etc ]. CSV can be particularly useful when transferring contacts between two or more contact programs or services which otherwise operate in mutually incompatible ways. Many programs support a variation of CSV import and export.

  • Lack of standardization

Nevertheless, CSV’s advantages end there. The biggest shortcoming of CSV is the lack of standardization. There are no set rules when it comes to defining how contact data is written to the CSV file by the originating program or service and how contact data is read by the destination program or service upon import.

  • CSV does not support contact photos

As CSV files can only store text and numeric data, non-textual and non-numeric content such as contact photos is lost during the transfer.

  • CSV and non-Latin scripts

Finally, there may be a number of problems occurring with non-Latin scripts [i.e.: Arab, Asian, Cyrillic, …] as well as with special characters [i.e.: é, ö, â]. Contact names containing non-Latin or special characters can get scrambled just as easily during the export stage as well as during the import stage. In order to avoid text scrambling, you must ensure that both the program/service you use to export to CSV and the program/service you use to import or open the CSV file are designed to handle such non-standard scripts [check for utf8 and unicode].

CopyTrans Contacts supports both special-characters and non-Latin scripts when exporting iOS contacts to CSV.

  • When to use CSV instead of vCard?

Use CSV to transfer contacts in case there is no available alternative. It is rare nowadays for programs or services to only allow the transfer of contacts via CSV. Outlook.com [previously Hotmail] is one of these rare exceptions.

You can use CopyTrans contacts to export iPhone contacts to Hotmail via a CSV file. To find out more about how to do so, refer to the following tutorial: Transfer iPhone contacts to Hotmail

vCard – the electronic business card standard

vCard [also VCF] is a standardized method of storing and transferring contact data. vCard is superior to CSV in that it can store textual and numeric data, but also contact photos, and audio clips [i.e. assigned ringtones]. vCard files are also widely supported by e-mail clients and services. As a result, there is no data loss during the transfer of contacts via using the vCard format.

Many programs and services such as iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook [2007 or later versions] freely support the vCard format as a means of importing and exporting contacts. It is therefore, recommended to use the vCard format over CSV when transferring contacts.

CopyTrans Contacts can help you to: Import vCard contacts to iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch Export iOS contacts to Gmail, and more

Krasimir is an avid marketing aficionado and a tech-support specialist in charge of the English-speaking market. He grew up in Bulgaria and on the island of Mauritius where he became passionate about windsurfing and photography.

  • By Belinda Anderson
  • 17 August 2014
  • Updated: 2 September 2021
  • One Comment

Microsoft Outlook provides a great solution for managing your email, contacts, calendar, and to do lists all within the one location. In cases where I need to send contact information to other associates or colleagues, I utilise the built-in features of Outlook which allow you to forward any Contact from your address book. I am surprised at how many people I have seen use the Copy & Paste function on each part of the contact’s details when sending the information to another person.

Microsoft Outlook allows you to forward a Contact card in a few simple steps which will give the recipient an option to save the card straight into their own Outlook contacts area.

Attach a Contact to an Email

There are two ways to achieve this process; the first way is directly through an email message:

  1. Open Microsoft Outlook [I’m using Outlook 2016]
  2. Open a new email message [Ctrl + N] OR open an existing message and press Reply
  3. Type in your message as you would normally do
  4. From the Message tab, click the Attach Item button

  1. From the menu choose Business Card > Other Business Cards
  2. The Insert Business Card dialog box will appear:

  1. Select the business card you wish to send and click OK
  2. You will now see the card attached to your email message

  1. Send the email message as normal

Forward a Contact Card

The second way to forward a business card is from within the Contacts area.

  1. From the Outlook Folder Pane select the People icon [Contacts]

  1. Locate the business card you wish to send and select it by clicking on it once with the left mouse button
  2. From the Home tab on the Ribbon, select the Forward Contact button located within the Share group of icons

  1. Choose As a Business Card from the menu
  2. A new email message will appear with the business card already attached

  1. Simply address the message and add relevant information, then click Send

You’ve now successfully forwarded a contact card using Outlook. For some great tips on using Shortcut keys within Microsoft Outlook – check out my post – My favourite shortcut keys in Microsoft Outlook.

  • contacts, forward, outlook, send
  • Microsoft Outlook

One Response

  1. Thanks for the support!!!
    However, I was looking for an answer to problems I’m having with this method of forwarding contacts. I also have office 2016 on 3 different laptops. One for my office, one I take on the road and one for the wife. Just realized that when I use contact forward, some of the info is lost. When I use forward as an outlook contact, the email and address are deleted. When I use forward as a business card, my personal notes get deleted. Any idea why???

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  • What is the difference between sending someone your Outlook contact and Outlook business card?

    What is the difference between Outlook contact and Outlook business card? In Microsoft Outlook, a contact can be a name or email address, while the business card displays the contact information in full screen mode.

    What is a business card in Outlook?

    Electronic Business Cards make it easier to create, view, and share contact information in Outlook. An Electronic Business Card displays contact information similar to a paper business card. You can create an Electronic Business Card from new information or from contact information that you already have in Outlook.

    What is the difference between using the business card versus the card views?

    Today, a visiting card can include your company's name and logo, but it would have fewer details about the business. A business card primarily represents the company, whereas a visiting card focuses on the individual. And that is what influences how each type of card is used.

    How do I send a contact as a business card in Outlook?

    Send a contact as a vCard Choose multiple contacts by holding down the Ctrl key and selecting each contact. In the Share group, click Forward Contact, and then click As a Business Card. Outlook attaches the vCard to the message and inserts a picture of it in the body of the message.

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