First off, been lurking this site since i had my ipad 1 in the first month of launch and this site has answered tons of questions i had so big thank you to this community.This is the first time I was unable to find my answer in a search so i decided to create an account.

I have all of my contacts on and excel sheet and would love to import them on to my ipad in a way that i would be able to type in the name to search them. The ipad pre-installed contacts would be most ideal but if there is a better way with a downloadable app i would have no problem going that route.

If anyone could point me in the right direction for instructions and how i would have to format my csv or excel sheet it would be much appreciated.

Much love to the community that knows everything about the greatest tablet in the world.

I don't know of any way to directly import .csv files into Contacts on the iPad.

As a workaround, you could get a Google account, which will allow .csv imports, then sync your iPad to the Google account. You need to set the account up as an Exchange account to do this.

Setting up Google Sync with your iOS device : Google Sync (ActiveSync) - Google Mobile Help

There are a few apps that will allow you do import and use your excel worksheet. How convinient that would be to use on the iPad, I don't know. The most often mentioned Excel compatible apps are:

Numbers : Moderate Excel compatibilty, good for making new stuff on iPad.
Documents to Go: Good Excel compatibilty, ok for making new stuff
QuickOffice : About the same as Docs 2 Go, user preference on the interface.

You'll notice I didn't give any Greats out. There are no exceptionally good solutions so far. All iPad Office suites are limited.