Why is the Contacts printing function so RUDIMENTARY?
Why can’t it print a nicely formatted Contact List that looks like an
Address Book…. similar to the nicely formatted calendars that
Google Calendar prints…?
The Gmail Contacts PRINT function prints only ONE phone number
(randomly printing the person’s “home” phone only?!), and only one
email address, and only one address, and None of the other information
about that person…!
It’s horrible!
When will Google fix this?
In the meantime, has anyone come up with a good work-around for
this? Like a good way of Exporting the Contacts, then Importing
them into some other program (like Evolution), and printing them from
there…?
UPDATE:
As for a Work-Around in the meantime….
I think I solved my own problem.
Here’s what I did…. And it works Brilliantly!
Go to Gmail Contacts and click on EXPORT,
Export one Group at a time….. into a vCard format file (for example, export your group called “Friends” or “Family”), then
Open Evolution (evolution is the free open source version of Outlook, but much better. it’s included with Ubuntu. see ubuntu.com and http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/evolution.html )
Click on Contacts.
Within Evolution….
Click File –> New –> New Addressbook
Create a new addressbook called “Friends” or “Family” (whichever Group you exported from Gmail Contacts). Next,
Click File –> Import Then,
“import single file”, then
select the vCard file you had exported, then
Select the matching new Address Book you created within Evolution.
It’s imported.
Next, click on that Addressbook within Evolution, and click File –> Print.
You’ll love the nicely formatted printed results. You can then three-hole punch the pages as a backup and/or portable copy for your briefcase.
Not to mention that you now have them all in your Evolution too!
Remember, your PRINTED copy is your MASTER copy. Mark up all additions and changes in INK on your printed copy. Then, whenever, at your convenience, enter all the changes and additions from your PRINTED copy into your Gmail Contacts. Then, simply Export the Group again, delete all contacts from that Addressbook in Evolution, and Import them all again from the vCard file again, then print it from Evolution again.
It sounds like a lot of work, but you can do it all in about 10 seconds! (not counting the printer’s printing time 
Bruce
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Bruce Wagner
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