Export Contacts

Introduction

Artshell lets you export the Contacts your account to Excel so you can manage, analyze, or integrate them with other external tools.

During the export process, the data is automatically divided into multiple sheets, each dedicated to a specific type of information: personal details, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, links, and so on.

This guide walks you through the process step by step:

• selecting the Contacts export,
• configuring export options,
• Consolidating data into a single spreadsheet (optional), which is useful for getting a complete overview of each contact.

Within the export options, you'll find toggle switches—buttons that you can turn on or off to include or exclude specific features or details associated with them.

Watch the short explanatory video below:

Select the Contacts export

Click the Excel option, then set the export options:

• the name of the document
• the language
• what information to include when enabling the switches

Each switch corresponds to a sheet in the Excel file. By toggling the switches, you can include the following data:

• Details: Includes all data from record , excluding information already present in the other sheets. (e.g., here you'll find: Contact Type, Position, etc.)
• Addresses
• Email
• Phones
• Link
• Sent by: This field appears only if you used Inviter, an additional feature of Artshell, before creating your events.

If you want to review the selected items or change your selection, click " Items " in the navigation menu on the left, then select "Manage Selection " to add or remove Contacts.

Finally, click the "Generate Excel " button to download the file. The generated file has the following structure:

Consolidate the data into a single sheet

When you export Contacts Artshell, the data is organized into multiple sheets within the Excel file, each dedicated to a specific type of information (such as personal details, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, links, etc.).

Please note that only the sheets corresponding to the information you selected at the time of export will be included. For example, if you choose to export only " Details " and "Phone Numbers," the file will contain only those two sheets.

To get a unified view of all this data, you need to create a summary sheet—which we’ll call “Union” —where you can consolidate the key information by combining manual operations with automatic formulas. Currently, Artshell does not perform this task automatically, so we’ll walk you through the process step by step using Excel formulas.

Data Structure

The exported Excel file will contain one or more sheets, depending on the options you selected during the export. Each sheet contains a specific type of information:

• Details: first name, last name, company, job title, notes, date of birth.
• Addresses: physical addresses.
• Email: email addresses.
• Phone numbers: phone numbers.
• Link: URL.

All sheets contain a common column called " Artshell ID," which represents the unique identifier for each contact. This ID will serve as the reference point for merging the data.

In addition, the last two columns of each sheet show the date the data was created and the date it was last updated, so that any changes over time can be tracked.

Step 1: Identify and isolate Contacts duplicate Artshell IDs

In the first sheet, select the column containing the Artshell IDs.

Go to Home >> Conditional Formatting >> Cell Highlighting Rules >> Duplicate Values. ( See the Microsoft article for more information)

Confirm the formatting rule by clicking OK. You can also keep the default rule with red shading.

Do the same for each sheet (Email, Addresses, Phone Numbers, Links).

In our case, the Details sheet contains no duplicates, whereas in the other sheets, some Contacts on multiple lines because the same Artshell ID is associated with multiple pieces of data (for example, two email addresses or multiple phone numbers).

For each contact that appears on multiple lines (i.e., with a duplicate Artshell ID), choose only one line to keep—for example, the one containing the most relevant or up-to-date information.

Duplicate rows that you don’t want to include right away can be moved to a separate sheet—for example, one named“Duplicates”—so you can manage or review them later.

Once you have completed this cleanup, we recommend that you remove any empty rows remaining in the source sheets to avoid errors or confusion during the data merging process.

Step 2: Create the “Union” sheet

Once you have finished reviewing the duplicate data, you can proceed to create the summary sheet, which will consolidate all the key information about Contacts.

1. Click the “+” icon at the bottom of the sheets bar to create a new sheet.
2. Name the sheet, for example “Union.” If you prefer, you can use a different name.
3. In the new sheet, paste the complete list of Artshell IDs from the sheets you included during the export (e.g., Details, Addresses, Email, Phone Numbers, Links) into column A.
4. Once you've pasted the IDs, select the entire column A. It's important that each ID appears only once, so that you have one row for each contact.
5. Use the Data >> Remove Duplicates command to automatically remove duplicate IDs. (See the Microsoft article for more information)
6. Finally, in row 1 of the sheet, enter the column headers you want to use to organize the data you’ll be retrieving (e.g., First Name, Last Name, Email, Country, etc.). This will help you create a clear and well-structured mail merge sheet.

This will give you a clean, unique list of Artshell IDs, which will serve as the starting point for creating the data summary using the formulas described in the next step.

Step 3: Combine the data using the VLOOKUP formula

Once you've entered the list of Artshell IDs into the "Merge" sheet, you can start automatically retrieving information from the source sheets (Details, Addresses, Email, etc.) using the VLOOKUP formula.

This formula allows you to search for a value (in this case, the contact ID) within a range and return the contents of a specific column in the same row.

Formula Structure (EXAMPLE)

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A2, Sheet!Range, Column, FALSE), 0)

Explanation of the components

Select the cell where you want to enter the formula, then type the formula directly into the cell or into the formula bar at the top, next to the fx indicator.

After entering the formula in cell B2, drag the green fill handle down to copy it to all the rows in the worksheet. Excel will automatically copy the formula to each row, adjusting the reference cell (e.g., A2, A3, A4…).

Practical examples of formulas

Retrieve the "Name" field from the " Details" sheet 

To enter the Name, you must enter the formula:

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A2, "Details"!$A$2:$M$31, 2, FALSE), 0)

Retrieve the "Last Name" field from the " Details" sheet 

For the last name, however, the formula will be the same, but the column number must be changed because last names are in column 3.

To retrieve information from other sheets, such as " Addresses " or " Email," use the following formulas:

Retrieve the "Country" field from the " Addresses" sheet 

To retrieve the " Country" field, use the following formula:

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A2, Addresses!$A$1:$M$31, 7, FALSE), 0)

In this case, we had to change the name of the sheet to " Addresses" and the column number, which is column 7 in the "Addresses" sheet.

The result will be this:

Retrieve the Email field from the Email sheet 

To insert the Email field, you must enter the following formula:

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A2, "Email", $A$2:$M$31, 6, FALSE), 0)

Conclusions

Exporting Contacts Artshell in Excel format is a useful and versatile tool for gaining a detailed overview of your data. The division into themed sheets allows you to analyze each category of information in an organized manner. However, for reading, printing, or integration with other systems, it may be helpful to consolidate all the data into a single worksheet.

By following the steps described in this guide—from selecting Contacts combining data using the VLOOKUP formula—you can create a clear and comprehensive summary sheet tailored to your operational needs.