Android/iOS: This function is not available in the Android and iOS version.
The command Convert Thunderbird address book allows you to convert an address book of the Thunderbird e-mail program into a database.
This database can then be used with TextMaker. For example, you can open the resulting database in TextMaker's database module, use it for mail merges, etc.
Proceed as follows:
| 1. | In TextMaker, choose the ribbon command Mailings | group Database | New database  | Convert Thunderbird address book. |
| 2. | A dialog box appears. Make the desired settings there (see below) and confirm them. |
The Thunderbird address book is now converted into a database and stored in the specified destination directory.
If you have selected "SQLite table" or "dBASE" as the output format, you can now open and edit the database in the TextMaker database module using the ribbon command Mailings | group Database | Edit database. Furthermore, the database can also be used as a source database for mail merges, lists, labels, etc.
Options of the dialog box
The dialog box for this command contains the following options:
▪Location of Thunderbird address book (abook.mab)
| Here, you can set the path and name of the file with the Thunderbird address book to be converted. |
Note: If Thunderbird is installed on your computer, TextMaker can usually determine the correct path and file name of this file automatically. You can then simply accept the default setting.
| Alternatively, you can specify a path and file name manually. |
| Note: The command Help > Troubleshooting information in Thunderbird allows you to see where the profile folder for your currently selected user profile is located if necessary. The address book file abook.mab is located in this folder. |
▪Include fields that are empty
| This option has the following effect: |
| Off: If the option is disabled, all fields that are empty in the entire address book will automatically be omitted during the conversion. |
| On: If this option is enabled, however, such completely empty fields will also be included in the output file. |
▪Output format
| Here, you can determine the file format for the output file: |
| dBASE (*.dbf): If you select this option, the result of the conversion is stored in a dBASE database. |
| Note: The database is created in the "dBASE/Unicode" format. This is a variant of the dBASE format developed by SoftMaker that also supports complex character sets (for example, Asian scripts). However, such databases can only be edited with a few programs (apart from SoftMaker Office). If you open such a file in another program, accented characters may be displayed incorrectly. |
| SQLite (*.sqlite): The database is stored in SQLite format, which gives you maximum flexibility. |
| Text file (*.csv): If you select this option instead, a plain text file will be created in CSV format. CSV stands for "comma separated values", thus the individual field contents are separated by a comma in the text file. |
▪Name of destination file
| Here, you can specify in which directory and under which file name the output file should be stored. |
▪"Convert" button
| This completes the conversion. |