Access your outlook.com account via browser and open People, then select Manage/Export for Outlook.com and other services, then save the OutlookContacts.csv file. Before you import the csv to TB, follow these instructions for editing the file to make the import process easy:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1012084#answer-607601

Hi, thanks for your response. Unfortunately we have MS Office 2007 - so no Outlook. My People file resides on the PC only and I have searched the help files and all the obvious areas before posting the problem. I still don't see any advice in the People App to tell me how to export the list of contacts. Currently we are copying each contact as we need to use their address - tedious to say the least.

Thanks anyway, regards, Ian

If you don't have a hotmail/live/outlook account, which automatically syncs People contacts on the PC with People on the web account, what is the nature of your "People file"? If you open Windows Contacts (search for contacts and then launch it), does it show anything? If the contacts are displayed there, they can be exported to a csv file, and that file can be edited before importing to TB.

Hi, again. Sorry for the delay, I have been away and the PC in question is my wife's - hence my lack of access and knowledge (as I have W7). I am not happy not to have our data on the PC (and elsewhere, e.g. portable drives) or anywhere not under our control. I have therefore configured Thunderbird as "stand alone" on the PC. It is when I am forced by MS to work with data "on the web" that my lack of knowledge in that area shows up. Being retired I no longer have access to "learning opportunities" with colleagues, etc.

I do have a MS account and seemed to be forced into registering the PC with that account when I initially configured it. This (MS) account however, I believe, is only associated with my (Administrator) account and not with my wife's user account????? It is in this area of what is shared/associated with what and exactly where it resides that I am struggling. Is there any document I can access you could recommend which would help?

Thanks for your interest/help, regards, Ian

So far I have dodged the windows 8 bullet, and intend to continue doing so. So what 'I say may not be all that windows 8 relevant.

For windows 7 I wrote a blog post to get Thunderbird working with contacts. http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/windows-contacts.html It may be worth a try and see if people miraculously appear.

Otherwise I point you to another blog post. http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/sync-hotmailoutlookcom-contacts-with.html Which uses an add-on to synchronises Outlook.com people with Thunderbird. IF your people.... is local

When my wife got a new computer with Win 8, I set up a temporary gmail account for her and used it as an intermediary to import People from another ISP. So I went from the other ISP to gmail to People (contacts) on Win 8 Mail.

Going the other way, you could sync People with the gmail account and then export Contacts to a file to be imported in TB.

I have since convinced her to use Thunderbird :)

Well - eventually got back to the above problem, sorry for the delay. I have now managed to find the People file by using the Windows help - prompted by some of the info you all gave me, thanks. I have downloaded a .csv file and imported to Excel. I can then import this file into Thunderbird - BUT! - it would seem that I have my columns all mixed up as I seem to get all my contacts imported but with hardly any data.

Do any of you know which columns Thunderbird expects the First Name, Surname & Email Address to be in the .csv file, please? I could then re-order the data in my file to accommodate what Thunderbird requires.

Look forward to responses, thanks, Ian

To import an address book, try these steps:

From TB, click on 'Address Book' (or 3-bar menu -> Tools -> Address Book).

In the list of address books in the left pane, click on the one you want to import (or use 'Personal Address Book').

From the menu bar, select Tools -> Import. An new window 'Import' will open.

Click on 'Address Books' and 'Next'.

Highlight 'Text file', select 'Next'.

Near the lower right corner change LDIF to 'Comma separated'.

Navigate to the folder where your CSV file is located. Left click on it once. Click on 'Open'.

For CSV, there is no standard for the number or order of the fields. The screen you see allows you to "match up" your input with the fields in TB. So the task is to select and move fields up or down until you get things aligned. If you don't want to use a field, uncheck it. Once you have everything set, click OK.

Note 1: the file name of your CSV file will become the name of the address book! Note 2: when you first look at the imported address book, it may be empty. Click on another one and then go back to the imported one.

As far as matching up the fields, you have two columns: one from your CSV names, and one from TB. What you are trying to do there is make First name go to First name, Last name go to Last name, etc. If you are lucky, they will already be matched up. But if not, you can click on one and move it up or down in the list until it is across from the corresponding field name. This will get names, email, phones, etc into the right places. Make sure the fields you want are checked and the ones you don't want are unchecked.

I hope this makes it clearer.

f more relevance here is that Thunderbird only imports I think 34 fields. Thunderbird default export is 35 and Microsoft CSV files have lots more again, so check that the real information in at the beginning of the list.