Contacts in .xls (excel sheets) to Android mobiles through gmail

Hi,

I just bought a new Android mobile, Samsung Galaxy ACE. Since I have stored my contacts in many places, I need to go through a hectic process to have all the contacts back in one place, my phone. Few were in Facebook, gmail, which didnt take much time to sync with my mobile contacts.. 

Though the problem was with the ones I have placed offline in groups and excel sheets.. I kind of googled and figured out that there is no possible direct way to transfer contacts in .xls to Android without trying to convert it to either Vcard or .csv or using some other accounts. I would rather go to gmail. 

So in gist, this is what is supposed to be done.. 

1. Convert your .xls to .csv format

2. Upload to gmail. (Optional: Merge duplicate contacts)

3. Sync with your contacts

Step 1 : Convert your .xls to .csv format

Thanks to ubuntu. I dont want to go for some online service neither use some other faulty scripts nor do i need to download some software. 

This is what to be done...

1. Install catdoc.. 

 $sudo apt-get install catdoc

2. Use the tool 'xls2csv' (How cool ?!) to convert your .xls sheets to .csv format

$xls2csv your_contacts.xls > some_file_name.csv

[**Before that, Make sure that you have proper headers for each column.. like use 'Name' and 'Mobile Phone' not just 'Number'.. It wont work when you import in gmail.. To check whether your headers are right in gmail format, export some contact in 'Outlook' .csv format to your computer and check whether the headers match with the headers in your excel sheet.

FYI,  this is the list of  few of the headers as accepted in gmail..

  Last Name
  First Name
  Title
  Home Phone
  Mobile Phone
  e-Mail Address
  Work Phone
  Home Address

]

Step 2: Upload to gmail

1. Choose Contacts from the left side options.. 

2. Choose More and then Import.. Upload the file and your contacts will now be added to your gmail contacts.

Step 3. Sync with your contacts 

 

Now you are good to go to sync contacts with your android, which can be done  by,

 Settings->Accounts & Sync and Sync gmail..