How to merge duplicate address book groups

Group management in Labels by Zaweba lets you merge groups. Choose the duplicate groups and merge them into one, and the contacts stay exactly where they are in your address book, now under the single group. Nobody is deleted, and nobody needs adding by hand.

Duplicate groups creep in easily. One year it is Xmas cards, the next it is Christmas cards. An import from a spreadsheet adds Club, while you already had Club members. Before long, printing the right list means remembering to print two groups.

How groups work in Labels

A group is a tag on a contact. A contact can be in as many groups as you like, for example Christmas cards, Club members and Customers all at once. You can create, rename, merge and delete groups, and add or remove the selected contacts. Groups are what you choose from when you print a batch of labels, so tidy groups make for tidy printing.

When contacts are imported from a CSV file, columns such as Outlook's Categories are picked up, which is one common way near-duplicate groups appear.

Merging step by step

Open the address book tab and look through your groups. Note the pairs that mean the same thing.

Open the group management and use its merge option on the duplicates, keeping the name you prefer. Labels combines them, and every contact that was in either group ends up in the merged one.

Check the result by filtering the list to the merged group. You should see everyone from both.

Tidying beyond merging

While you are there, rename groups whose names no longer make sense. A group called List 2 is better as Summer fair helpers. Delete groups you no longer use; deleting a group never deletes its contacts, so it is safe.

You can also look for contacts who are in no group at all. Filter or search the list, select the ones who belong somewhere, and add them to the right group.

Before you merge

Search can help you spot the duplicates. The search box looks across every field and group name, and when you type several words they must all match, so typing part of a group name shows the contacts tagged with anything similar.

Make a quick backup first. CSV export writes the whole address book to a file you can keep, and it takes seconds. It is good practice before any big tidy.

Think about whether the two groups really are the same. A Christmas cards group and a Christmas presents group might share many people but still be worth keeping apart.

Keeping it tidy afterwards

Groups only help if they mean something. A good test is whether you would print the group on its own. Christmas cards, Club members and Customers pass that test easily; a group called Misc rarely does. If a group never gets printed, consider merging it into one that does or deleting it, remembering that its contacts always stay in the book.

Pick one naming style and stick to it. If you import contacts regularly, check the group names in the source spreadsheet before importing, so they match the groups you already use.

With one clean group per purpose, printing becomes simple: choose the group in Print and merge, check the live preview, and print. Christmas cards, club mailings and customer post each become a single, reliable list.