Merging Duplicate Contact Entries

Yahoo! helps you clean up duplicate contact entries through a tool that lets you merge contact information. Of course, Yahoo! asks your permission before merging duplicates, and even gives you an opportunity to edit the information before saving it.

Here’s How

1. If you’re in Yahoo! Mail, click the Contacts tab.

   

   Or open your Yahoo! Address Book by typing the following in the browser’s address box:

   address.yahoo.com

2. In the Contacts tab, click the Options link found near the upper-right area of the page.

   

   Note: Be sure you’re on the Contacts tab; otherwise you’ll see the options for a different tab, such as Mail or Calendar.

   The Address Book Options page opens.

3. Under the Management column, click the Clean Up Duplicates link.

   

   The Clean Up Duplicates window opens while Yahoo! searches through your Address Book looking for matching contact information. As it finds potential duplicates, Yahoo! displays them in the window. You can begin previewing and merging information while Yahoo! continues searching through your Address Book.

   

   The window shows how many duplicates Yahoo! found for each contact and whether the matches are EXACT or similar. An exact match means that each entry shares exactly the same information, though one of the entries may have additional information. Similar matches means each entry shares some subset of matching information. For example:

   

4. To preview and possibly merge the findings of a contact, click anywhere in the row containing the name.

   

   Tip: If you want Yahoo! to merge all of the exact matches without previewing the duplicates, click the Merge EXACT Matches Automatically link found near the bottom of the window.
   
   
   
   In the window that displays, click the Yes, Merge Automatically button. Yahoo! merges the exact matches found throughout your Address Book and places a check next to the contact names in the Duplicates window.
   
   

   The Duplicates preview window shows the potential duplicates on the left side of the window, and on the right, shows how the merged entry will look should you choose to accept it.

   Enlarge

   Tip: If you have more duplicates than you can see without scrolling, you can resize the window so that you can see more of the duplicates (as shown in the example above). Click the bottom-right corner of the window and drag it to a new size.
   
   

5. You have a number of options in the preview window.

   • Completely agree—If the Merge Preview looks good to you, click the Save and Next button.

     

     Yahoo! merges the entries into one in your Address Book and displays the next contact in the duplicates list.

   • No thanks—If you don’t want to merge the duplicates, click the Skip button.

     

     Yahoo! keeps the original entries as they are and displays the next contact in the duplicates list.

   • Maybe a few—To keep a potential duplicate as it is and remove it from the merge, uncheck it on the left. When you do, notice that Merge Preview changes on the right showing only the checked duplicates. When you have what you want, click the Save and Next button.

     Enlarge

     Yahoo! merges only the checked duplicates and leaves the unchecked entries as is, and displays the next contact in the duplicates list.

   • Almost but not quite—You may not completely agree, but you do want to merge the checked contacts with a few changes. Edit the Merge Preview by clicking the Edit link.

     

     The Merge Preview changes so that you can edit the contact information.

     

     Make the changes you want, then click the Save and Next button.

     Yahoo! incorporates your edits and merges the entries into one in your Address Book and displays the next contact in the duplicates list.

6. You can return to the list at any time by clicking the Back to List button found at the bottom of the duplicates list window (or when you complete the merging process). When you do, you’ll see what contact entries you’ve merged, those you’ve skipped (they’re no longer shown in bold), and those you have left to work with.

   

7. When you’ve completed your merges, click the Close button at the bottom of the list.

   Tip: Not done merging but need to catch lunch with a friend? Go ahead and close the window. When you click the Clean Up Duplicates link again, Yahoo! will find and list the duplicates you didn’t get to last time.

8. Return to your Address Book by clicking the Contacts tab.

What’s Next

Use the Clean Up Duplicates tool whenever you feel you may have introduced possible duplicates, such as after you’ve imported contact information from another application (see the Adding Contacts to Your Address Book tutorial).