How to i enter hebrew characters in New-MailContact (CSV bulk import)

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Hi
I am trying to run a bulk import to my Exchange 2010 from a CSV file.
I run the following in a powershell script:

Import-Csv C:\contacts.csv | ForEach { New-MailContact -Name $_.displayName -Firstname $_.FirstName -LastName $_.LastName -ExternalEmailAddress $_.EmailAddress -OrganizationalUnit "YourDomain.Local/Contacts"

It runs great, but the problem is that the CSV file has hebrew characters, and those are entered as question marks instead. Is there some setting i am missing?

Thanks
Jaime
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IT Infrastructure Architect
Commented:
The problem is that the .csv file was saved in the ANSI format. You can fix this by converting the file to unicode with the following comand before importing.

gc c:\old-file.csv | Out-File -en unicode c:\new-unicode.csv

Or you can just open the csv file in notepad and save it in unicode format before you run import-csv..
Unicode
GreatSolutionsC.I.O

Author

Commented:
Thanks, it does load the hebrew characters alright, although the Alias field is filled with question marks for all contacts, is there something i can do?
GreatSolutionsC.I.O

Author

Commented:
Easy to implement and saved me hours of fiddling with the encoding...
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Subash SundharanIT Infrastructure Architect

Commented:
Do you have problem after changing the encoding? if yes please post some sample words/usernames which you have issue, so I will test it..
GreatSolutionsC.I.O

Author

Commented:
I think i didn't explain well.
I opened the csv file and saved it as Unicode.
Then i run the import code from my first post, and it runs successfully, and when checking, all the contacts were created successfully *with correct hebrew characters*.
Just when browsing the contacts themselves, i noticed the Alias field (which is created automatically i guess, during the import ) is all question marks. I wondered if there was a way for me to set the value for this field so it's in hebrew as well.

Jaime
Subash SundharanIT Infrastructure Architect

Commented:
If you have a list of contacts to modify, then you can try with set mailbox.. Something like the following should work..
Import-csv "c:\newalias.csv" | % {Get-MailContact - Identity $_.Name | Set-MailContact -Alias $_.Alias}

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GreatSolutionsC.I.O

Author

Commented:
I'll try that, thanks!
Subash SundharanIT Infrastructure Architect

Commented:
then you can try with set mailbox..
I mean Set-MailContact.. it's a typo.. :-)

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