vCard Builder

How it is calculated

The tool writes a vCard 3.0 text block line by line. It always starts with BEGIN:VCARD and VERSION:3.0. The full name is split at whitespace: the first word becomes the given name and everything after it becomes the family name, producing N:Family;Given, and the whole text is repeated in FN:. Phone, email and organisation each add one line (TEL:, EMAIL:, ORG:) only when you fill them in, and the block ends with END:VCARD.

A name is required; the other three fields are optional, and without a name there is no result. Commas, semicolons, backslashes and line breaks in the name and organisation are escaped with a backslash, as vCard requires, so "Demir, Ltd" stays one organisation. Spaces inside the email are removed and runs of spaces in the phone are collapsed to one, but numbers and addresses are not otherwise validated. The result also reports the line count and how many of the 4 fields were used.

Common mistakes

• Typing a middle name and expecting a separate field. Only the first word is treated as the given name, so in Ayşe Nur Demir the family name becomes Nur Demir. Put the family name last and keep a single given name if the structured name matters.
• Entering a single-word name and expecting a family name. A name like Cher gives an empty family part (N:;Cher) and counts as one field.
• Leaving out the country code on the phone number. The number is copied as typed, so a local format may not dial correctly once the contact is saved on a phone in another country.
• Saving the output with a .txt extension or in a non-UTF-8 encoding. Use the .vcf extension and UTF-8, otherwise accented names such as Ayşe may be garbled on import.
• Expecting extra fields such as address, job title or website. Only name, phone, email and organisation are generated, so add other lines by hand if you need them.