Re: Thunderbird addressbook printing

Ingo Ratsdorf wrote:

> On 31/03/2009 8:32 a.m., The Real Bev wrote:
>> What I'd really like to be able to do is print my addressbook with only
>> 2 fields: name and email address. I would like to be able to print this
>> in tiny print with multiple columns such that I could fit the whole
>> thing on one sheet of paper, possibly double sided, rather than the
>> 50-page tome I'd print if I used the TB printing facility.
>>
>> I've tried exporting and converting the addressbook file in a number of
>> ways -- the best taking a lot of steps and passing the file through
>> several different programs and being a far bigger nuisance than it
>> should be.
>>
>> Am I the only one who'd like to do this? Most of the fields in the
>> addressbook file are absolutely useless but insist on being printed
>> anyway :-(
>>
> I agree that a better printing feature would be nice, but please ask 
> yourself how many people would need that really how often. I guess there 
> is a danger of ending up with a monster application like MS office when 
> all sort of features would be integrated.
> I think this would be a good task for an PLUGIN because I rather have a 
> thin and fast email client.

Fine, no problem.  I like the idea of just using the extensions you want.

> I never had the need to print any address items, not even a single VCF. 
> I am digital, I stay digital and I export and import data.

I run linux.  I can put my bookmarks file on a thumbdrive and any browser on 
any system will be able to read it, but if I want to use somebody else's 
machine to send email to somebody whose address I don't remember I want a paper 
list in my wallet so I can use whatever machine and mail program is available.

I tried portable FF and TB (windows) on a thumbdrive.  Agonizingly slow.

> Despite that, just export your address book to comma separated values 
> (CSV) and open it with Excel or OpenOffice, delete columns you do not 
> want or select the whole lot and apply a filter and just print it. I 
> tried it and it took 30 secs...

It took me a lot longer than that and I had to do quite a bit of hand work.  I 
guess I'm just not sufficiently methodical :-(

-- 
Cheers, Bev
=======================================================================
"Windows Freedom Day: a holiday that moves each year, the date of which
  is calculated by adding up the total amount of time a typical person
  must spend restarting windows and then determining how many work weeks
  that would correspond to."                              -- Trygve Lode